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COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  GERMANIC  STUDIES 


THE   UNMARRIED    MOTHER 
IN  GERMAN  LITERATURE 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
SALES  AGENTS 

NEW  YORK  : 

LEMCKE  &  BUECHNER 
30-32  WEST  27ra  STREET 

LONDON : 

HUMPHREY  MILFORD 
AMEN  CORNER,  E.G. 


THE  UNMARRIED  MOTHER 
IN  GERMAN  LITERATURE 


WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  THE 
PERIOD  1770-1800 


BY 

OSCAR  HELMUTH  WERNER 


SUBMITTED  IN  PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS 

FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY,  IN  THE 

FACULTY  OF  PHILOSOPHY,  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


Neb  ¥0rfc 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
1917 


- 


Copyright,  1917 
BY  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

Printed  from  type,  May  1917 


PRESS  OF 

THE  NEW  ERA  PRINTING  COMPANY 
LANCASTER,  PA. 


G* 
V 


Approved  for  publication  on  behalf  of  the  Department  of 
Germanic  Languages  and  Literatures  of  Columbia  University. 

CALVIN  THOMAS. 

NEW  YORK;  May  i,  1917 


366525 


PREFACE 

That  the  problem  of  unmarried  motherhood  plays  an  im- 
portant role  in  the  life  of  the  nations  of  the  Occident  is  proved 
conclusively  by  the  fact  that  before  the  present  war  there  were 
born  in  Germany  177,000  illegitimate  children  annually,  in 
France  80,000,  in  England  38,000,  in  Sweden  18,000,  in  little 
Norway  5,000.  In  the  cities  of  the  United  States  about  3  per 
cent  of  all  births  are  illegitimate,  which  is  low  as  compared  with 
European  countries.  The  extent  of  the  divorce  evil  in  our 
country  counterbalances  this,  for  out  of  every  twelve  marriages 
contracted  one  ends  in  divorce.  It  is  no  wonder,  therefore, 
that  the  nations  of  the  Occident  have  in  the  last  decade  been 
actively  engaged  in  an  attempt  to  solve  this  problem  of 
unmarried  motherhood.  In  Germany  and  the  Scandinavian 
countries  a  widespread  movement  called  "  Mutterschutz "  has 
lately  sought  reforms  in  the  laws  of  the  state  and  in  the 
opinions  of  society  to  the  end  of  removing  the  disgrace  which 
attaches  to  the  illegitimate  child  and  its  mother.  In  1913 
France  finally  abolished  the  famous  Napoleonic  edict:  "La 
recherche  de  la  paternit6  est  interdite."  In  1914  Austria  fol- 
lowed with  the  abolition  of  an  equally  notorious  law  where- 
by "illegitimate  children  were  excluded  from  family  and 
relationship  rights."  The  Norwegian  Storthing  in  1915  passed 
a  "law  concerning  children  whose  parents  have  not  married,'1 
whose  intention  is  to  give  every  child  two  parents.  And  in 
our  country  the  Department  of  Labor  has  recently  undertaken 
"a  study  into  the  problems  presented  by  the  unmarried 
mothers  of  America,"  which  is  to  be  "the  most  elaborate 
inquiry  of  its  kind  ever  attempted  by  the  federal  government." 

The  dynamic  behind  this  movement  is  the  realization  that 
the  unmarried  mother  and  her  child  are  victims  of  circum- 
stances for  which  they  are  generally  not  responsible  and  that 
therefore  the  stigma  which  a  former  civilization  has  attached 
to  them  is  unjust.  Modern  civilization  no  longer  accepts  the 

vii 


Vlll 

rule  of  the  ancients  that  woman  is  "the  gate  of  the  devil," 
but  it  insists  that  the  sanctity  of  all  motherhood  can  best  be 
restored  to  society  by  the  acceptance  of  the  principle  that 
man  and  not  woman  is  the  aggressor  in  sex  matters,  all 
examples  to  the  contrary  being  pitiful  perversions  of  nature 
which  were  probably  brought  into  existence  involuntarily. 

But  this  dissertation  was  undertaken  primarily  to  find,  if 
possible,  a  more  satisfactory  explanation  than  has  been  given 
hitherto  for  Goethe's  utilization  of  the  theme  of  unmarried 
motherhood  with  its  consequent  infanticide  in  his  "Faust." 
It  was  suggested  by  Piofessor  Calvin  Thomas  that  a  study 
of  the  laws  and  customs  contemporary  with  Goethe  might 
throw  light  upon  this  question.  The  investigation  was  not 
limited,  therefore,  to  the  field  of  belles  lettres  but  included  all 
literature  of  the  period  which  might  have  a  bearing  on  the 
subject.  In  the  first  two  chapters  I  have  accordingly  devoted 
much  space  to  a  discussion  of  all  literature  on  the  subject 
up  to  1800,  devoting  Chapter  III  more  particularly  to  the 
belles  lettres  of  the  Storm  and  Stress  period.  The  original 
intention  of  adding  a  chapter  on  the  development  of  the  prob- 
lem in  German  life  and  literature  from  1800  to  the  present 
time  was  not  carried  out  because  of  its  unsuspected  extent. 
A  study  of  this  period  with  especial  reference  to  the  changed 
attitude  of  the  church  shall  be  the  subject  of  a  future  research. 

I  cannot  express  properly  in  words  my  gratefulness  to 
Professor  Calvin  Thomas  for  his  infinite  patience  and  constant 
encouragement  in  the  preparation  of  this  dissertation,  as  well 
as  for  his  advice  and  help  in  many  other  ways.  I  am  also 
indebted  to  Professor  Arthur  F.  J.  Remy  for  the  encourage- 
ment in  the  prosecution  of  my  studies  in  the  German  saga 
world,  to  Professor  W.  Addison  Hervey  and  Dr.  Traugott 
Bohme  for  their  interest  in  my  research  and  valuable  sugges- 
tions relating  to  it,  and  to  Professor  Frederick  W.  J.  Heuser 
for  his  criticism.  I  wish  also  to  express  my  gratitude  to  my 
colleague,  Mr.  W.  D.  Trautmann,  for  suggestions  and  assistance 
in  the  reading  of  the  proof. 
CLEVELAND,  April  12,  1917. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 


Popularity  of  theme  of  unmarried  motherhood  during  Storm 
and  Stress  period,  i.  In  imaginative  literature,  2.  In  non- 
imaginative  literature,  3.  The  Mannheim  prize,  4.  Source  of 
extensive  literature,  6.  Extent  of  infanticide  in  real  life,  7. 
The  present  problem,  n. 


CHAPTER  I 
TRADITIONAL  STATUS  OF  THE  UNMARRIED  MOTHER 12 

Marriage  among  primitive  peoples,  12.  Legal  marriage,  14. 
Celibacy  vs.  marriage  in  early  Christian  church,  15.  Conflict  of 
church  with  concubinage,  17.  With  legal  infanticide,  18. 
Theories  of  punishment  applied  to  illegitimate  sex  relations,  23. 
Theory  of  revenge,  23.  Theory  of  betterment,  24.  "  Abschreck- 
ungstheorie,"  24.  Illegitimate  infanticide,  25.  Punishments 
inflicted  on  unmarried  mothers  in  Middle  Ages,  26.  Sacking, 
26.  Burying  alive,  26.  Empalement,  27.  Public  church 
penance,  27.  Carolina,  29.  Failure  of  "  Abschreckungstheorie," 
32.  First  traces  of  revolt,  34.  Frederick  the  Great,  34.  Con- 
temporary rulers,  37.  Beccaria,  38. 

CHAPTER   II 

THE    HUMANITARIAN    REVOLT    OF    THE    EIGHTEENTH 

CENTURY 40 

Causes  of  wide-spread  illegitimacy  in  last  half  of  eighteenth 
century,  40.  Inflated  prosperity,  41.  Emigration  from  country 
to  city,  42.  Social  gatherings  conducive  to  immorality,  43. 
Literature,  44.  Hosts  of  unmarried,  46.  Soldiers,  46.  Soldier- 
marriages,  48.  Nobility,  52.  Revolt  against  antiquated  laws, 
56.  Natural  law  vs.  social  law,  56.  Capital  punishment,  58. 
Torture,  60.  Revolt  against  canon  law,  61.  Public  church 
penance,  62.  Punishment  of  seducer,  65.  Foundling-houses,  67. 

ix 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  LITERARY  REFLEX  OF  THE  REVOLT  IN  THE  STORM 

AND  STRESS  PERIOD 69 

Universality  of  the  tragedy  of  unmarried  motherhood,  69. 
Personal  experience  of  the  writers  as  a  source  of  productions,  69. 
Didacticism,  70.  Seduction,  74.  Infanticide,  76.  Differentia- 
tion of  voluntary  and  involuntary  unmarried  motherhood,  80. 
Motives  which  prompted  infanticide,  82.  Desertion,  82.  The 
forsaken  girl,  82.  Hatred,  86.  Jealousy  of  another  girl,  87. 
Fear  of  shame,  88.  Ridicule  of  parents,  88.  The  blustering 
father,  88.  Ridicule  of  the  world,  90.  Dark  outlook  for  future 
of  child,  92.  Emphasis  by  church  on  virginity  at  marriage,  93. 
Despair,  95.  Superstition,  96.  The  hell-motif,  100.  The 
eternal  feminine,  102. 

CHAPTER   IV 

CONCLUDING  OBSERVATIONS 105 

Results  of  the  agitation,  105.  Contribution  of  writers  through 
personal  efforts,  107.  Effectiveness  of  non-esthetic  literature, 
108.  The  two-fold  aim  of  imaginative  literature,  108.  Influence 
on  public  opinion,  109.  Value  as  esthetic  literature,  109. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 112 

INDEX 124 


INTRODUCTION 

In  October,  1853,  a  reader  of  the  Anzeiger  fur  Kunde  der 
deutschen  Vorzeit  asked  the  following  questions:  "Goethe  in 
his  'Faust'  lets  the  offended  brother  of  the  unfortunate 
Gretchen  imprecate  all  kinds  of  punishments  for  her  mistake, 
or  rather  recounts  them  as  presupposed  results.  Did  the 
poet  .  .  .  invent  these  punishments  and  social  detriments 
which  Gretchen  was  to  experience?  Did  he  draw  from  folk- 
tradition  or  from  historical  sources?  Where  in  fact  does  one 
find  authentic  reports  about  the  punishments  of  unchastity  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  especially  about  the  punishments 
inflicted  on  fallen  girls  by  church  and  society?"  Twenty 
years  later  another  student  of  Goethe  asked:  "How  did  it 
come  that  in  spite  of  the  free  sexual  relations  among  the  lower 
classes  and  in  spite  of  the  tremendous  power  of  the  sexual 
impulse,  cases  like  Gretchen 's  were  comparatively  rare,  so 
that  every  time  such  a  sexual  lapse  resulted  in  infanticide  it 
caused  the  greatest  ado  and  horror?"1 

Both  inquirers  presupposed  what  we  know  to  be  a  fact, 
namely,  that  the  source  of  Goethe's  poetic  creations  was  real 
life.  They  did  not  know  that  the  unmarried  mother,  who 
usually  killed  her  new-born  child,  was  the  most  popular  lit- 
erary theme  of  the  Storm  and  Stress  epoch,  or  that  infanticide 
was  the  most  common  crime  in  western  Europe  from  the 
Middle  Ages  to  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Erich  Schmidt,  as  early  as  1875,  pointed  out  that  "the 
theme  of  infanticide  as  a  continuation  of  the  theme  of  seduc- 
tion haunts 'many  writers"  of  the  Storm  and  Stress  period.2 
In  his  introduction  to  a  reprint  of  Wagner's  "Die  Kinder- 
morderinn"  he  refers  again  to  the  theme,  "which  was  so 

1  Reinhard  Rope,  "  Gretchens  Schuld,"  1873.     A  chapter  in  his  "  Unbewusste 
Zeugnisse  fiir  die  christliche  Wahrheit."     Hamburg,  1877,  p.  127. 

2  In    his    "Heinrich    Leopold    Wagner.     Goethes    Jugendgenosse."     Jena, 
1879.  p.  98. 

1 


popular  in  drama,  prose  narrative  and  juridical  literature."8 
In  spite  of  Max  Koch's  assertion  that  the  theme  was  one 
"which  all  poets  of  this  youthful  school  attempted  to  utilize/'4 
scholars  generally  refer  to  its  use  by  a  few  writers  only.  Thus 
Eduard  Engel  says:  "Infanticide  and  punishment  of  the 
murderess  were  among  the  frequently  treated  subjects: 
Burger,  Lenz,  Maler  Miiller,  later  Schiller  and  even  Goethe 
treated  it,  as  did  H.  L.  Wagner  with  crude  realism."5  Karl 
Credner  in  the  introduction  to  an  excellent  collection  of  ex- 
tracts from  the  literature  of  the  Storm  and  Stress  is  right  in 
his  assertion  that  "the  infanticide  is  a  typical  figure  of  the 
Storm  and  Stress  from  Goethe  to  Schiller  and  exceeds  in 
frequency  even  the  favored  pair  of  hostile  brothers."6 

Graf,7  in  recording  Goethe's  famous  statement  regarding 
Wagner's  so-called  plagiarism,  calls  attention  to  a  letter  of 
Goethe  to  Zelter  in  which  he  wrote:  "All  the  foolishness  about 
pre-  and  postoccupation,  about  plagiarism  and  partial  theft 
is  perfectly  clear  to  me  and  in  my  opinion  silly.  For  what  is 
in  the  air  and  what  the  time  demands  can  originate  in  a  hun- 
dred heads  at  the  same  time  without  the  necessity  of  bor- 
rowing, one  from  another."  Probably  Graf  was  right  in 
suggesting  that  Goethe  was  thinking  particularly  of  the  popu- 
larity of  the  theme  of  infanticide,  for  we  have  an  interesting 
parallel  to  Goethe's  statement  in  a  foot-note  to  August  Gott- 

'  P.  iii  in  No.  13  of  "  Deutsche  Litteraturdenkmale  des  18.  und  19.  Jahrhun- 
derts."  Heilbronn,  1883. 

4  "Helferich  Peter  Sturz."     Miinchen,  1879,  P-  211. 

8  "Geschichte  der  deutschen  Literatur."     Leipzig  und  Wien,  1907,  II,  577. 

6  Introduction,  p.  n,  to  "  Voigtlanders  Quellenbticher.     No.  70.     Sturm  und 
Drang.     Quellenstiicke  zur  literarischen  Revolution  der  Originalgenies."     Leip- 
zig, 1915.     Other  evidence  for  the  popularity  of  the  theme  may  be  found  in 
Richard  Weltrich,  "  Friedrich  Schiller."     Stuttgart,  1899,  p.  532 ;  "  Sturmer  und 
Dranger."     Hrsg.  von  August  Sauer,  I,  45f.;  Casar  Flaischlen,  "Otto  Heinrich 
Freiherr  von  Gemmingen.  Mit  einer  Vorstudie  iiber  Diderot,"  Stuttgart,  1890, 
p.  122;  Georg  Joseph  Pfeiffer,  "Klinger's  Faust,"  Wiirzburg,  1887,  p.  i3f.; 
Konstantin  Muskalla,  "Johann  Timotheus  Hermes,"  Breslau,  1910,  p.  27f.; 
Theodor  Mertens,  "Die  Kerkerscene  aus  Goethes  Faust,"  Hannover,  1873, 
p.  34;  etc. 

7  Hans  Gerhard  Graf:  "Goethe  iiber  seine  Dichtungen."     Frankfurt  am 
Main,  1904,  IV,  206.     The  letter  to  Zelter  is  in  "  Briefe  "  XXVII,  220. 


lieb  Meissner's  poem  "Die  Morderin."8  Meissner,  referring 
to  the  similarity  of  his  poem  with  another  by  Anton  Matthias 
Sprickmann  entitled  "Ida,"  says:  "I  know  very  well,  that 
several  parts  of  '  Ida '  in  the  February  number  of  the  Museum 
for  1777  are  similar  to  this  poem,  but  as  an  honest  man  I  can 
affirm  that  the  poem  was  finished  several  months  before  I  even 
saw  that  one.  A  new  example  of  how  often  two  heads  think 
of  the  same  thing  without  borrowing  anything  from  each 
other." 

When  Boie  suggested  to  Burger  that  he  should  read  Wag- 
ner's play  the  latter  answered:  "Wagner's  'Die  Kindermor- 
derinn '  I  have  not  seen  as  yet.  The  title,  however,  strikes  me 
because  I  have  carried  a  dramatic  subject  by  the  same  title 
around  with  me  for  a  long  time.  I  wish  Wagner's  production 
were  poor.  Lenz  too  recently  crossed  my  plans  with  'Die 
Soldaten,'  in  which  he  depicted  many  a  situation  as  if  he  had 
copied  them  right  out  of  my  soul."9  To  this  Boie  answered  in 
a  letter  which  is  a  remarkable  index  to  the  popularity  of  the 
theme:  "Wagner's  'Die  Kindermorderinn '  as  well  as  Lenz's 
'Die  Soldaten'  can  be  excelled  and  should  not  frighten  you. 
.  .  .  Sprickmann  has  composed  an  'Infanticide'  also.  .  .  . 
How  is  it  about  your  projected  ballad  'Die  Kindermorderin ' ? 
I  should  like  to  read  something  dramatic  by  you.  If  you  do 
not  come  out  with  yours  soon,  it  will  become  more  and  more 
difficult."10 

The  extensive  utilization  of  the  theme  of  infanticide  by  the 
writers  of  this  period  was  paralleled  by  a  much  more  extensive 
discussion  of  the  crime  in  literature  other  than  imaginative. 
Wainlud  in  a  recent  monograph  asserts  that  infanticide  and 
its  prevention  was  the  favorite  theme  of  the  criminologists  of 
that  time.11  Rothenberger  calls  attention  to  the  wide  dis- 
cussion of  means  to  care  for  the  poor,  to  the  evil  effects  of 

8  Meissner's  two  poems  "Lied  einer  Gefallenen"  and  "Die  Morderin"  were 
published  in  Deutsches  Museum,  I7791,  p.  37Qff.     Sprickmann's  "Ida"  is  in 
Deutsches  Museum,  1777*,  p.  I2off. 

9  Cf .  "  Brief e  von  und  an  Gottfried  August  Burger."     Hrsg.  von  Adolf  Strodt- 
mann.     Berlin,  1874,  letter  of  Sept.  15,  1776. 

10  Cf.  idem,  letter  of  Sept.  27,  1776. 

11  Samuel  Wainlud,  "  Die  Kindstotung."     Berlin,  1905,  p.  22. 


luxury,  and  then  to  a  "formliche  Kindermordlitteratur."12 
Seyffarth,  the  editor  of  the  best  edition  of  Pestalozzi's  works, 
says:  "The  question  how  infanticide  might  be  stopped  was  at 
that  time  a  burning  one."13 

The  great  interest  in  infanticide  can  best  be  brought  to 
view  by  the  contest  for  a  prize  of  100  ducats  offered  by  von 
Dalberg,  intendant  of  the  Mannheim  theater,  for  the  best 
essay  on  the  subject:  "What  are  the  best  and  most  practicable 
means  to  eradicate  infanticide  without  promoting  prostitu- 
tion?" The  contest  closed  at  Whitsuntide,  1781.  The  offer 
of  the  prize  was  published  in  most  of  the  newspapers  and 
magazines  of  that  time  and  was  generally  accompanied  by 
editorial  comments.  The  editorial  in  August  Ludwig  Schlo- 
zer's  magazine  Briefwechsel  is  typical.  "There  are  crimes 
committed  among  us,"  the  editor  writes,  "which  are  the  most 
horrible  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  common,  and  among 
these  is  infanticide;  crimes  which  are  related  to  virtues, 
virtues  which  develop  into  vices,  and  among  these  too  is  in- 
fanticide; crimes  which  experience  teaches  are  not  made  less 
frequent  by  increasing  the  severity  of  the  punishment,  while 
not  to  punish  them  would  bring  disgrace  to  mankind  and 
destruction  to  law  and  order,  and  among  these  too  is  infanti- 
cide. .  .  .  How  long  shall  we  lead  to  the  block  these  unfor- 
tunate girls  as  sacrificial  victims,  whose  love  and  the  natural 
weakness  of  their  sex,  whose  adornment  of  innocence  and 
modesty  has  made  them  to  be  mothers  and  murderesses?"14 

The  number  of  essays  submitted  for  the  prize  is  said  to 
have  been  four  hundred,  which  was  an  unusually  large  number 
for  that  time.  It  is  no  wonder  that  a  contributor  to  Schlo- 
zer's  magazine  suggested:  "The  prize  question,  how  infanti- 
cide might  be  checked,  has  alarmed  so  many  scholars  in  all  the 
faculties  that  one  is  amazed  at  the  large  number  of  essays 
submitted.  I  should  not  like  to  be  one  of  those  appointed  to 

12  Christian  Rothenberger,  "Pestalozzi  als  Philosoph."     Bern,   1898.     See 
"  Berner  Studien  zur  Philosophic  und  ihrer  Geschichte,"  XI,  27. 

13  "  Pestalozzi's  samtliche  Werke."     Hrsg.  von  L.  W.  Seyffarth.     Liegnitz, 
1900,  V,  345.     Cf.  also  Karl  Berger,  "Schiller,  sein  Leben  und  seine  Werke." 
Miinchen,  1906,  p.  215. 

14  Briefwechsel,  VII,  26 iff. 


judge  the  multitude  of  answers;  I  believe  I  should  be  bored 
to  death."15  A  writer  in  the  Allgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek 
expresses  similar  astonishment.16 

Three  essays  won  the  prize,  each  of  the  three  judges  award- 
ing it  to  a  different  contestant.  The  winners  were  Pfeil, 
Klippstein,17  and  Kreuzfeld;18  the  judges  the  coadjutor  von 
Dalberg  (Erfurt),  Michaelis  (Gottingen)  and  Rigal  (Mann- 
heim). In  addition  to  these  three,  a  large  number  of  the  other 
essays  submitted  were  published.  More  than  three  dozen  of 
them  were  reviewed  in  the  Allgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek. 
The  most  interesting  and  to  my  mind  the  most  important  of 
them  all  was  an  essay  by  Pestalozzi,19  which  was  not  submitted 
to  the  judges.  The  reason  is  found  in  a  letter  to  Isaak  Iselin, 
in  which  the  great  educator  wrote:  "I  hope  it  will  not  dis- 
please you,  but  I  do  not  intend  to  submit  it  as  a  prize-essay, 
but  instead,  if  possible,  to  sell  it  to  a  publisher  in  Basel,  in 
order  that  it  may  be  published  by  Easter.  I  believe  the  sub- 
ject-matter is  of  such  general  interest  that  it  would  be  a  good 
article  for  the  book-stores."20  Pestalozzi  did  not  find  a  pub- 
lisher immediately,  however,  and  therefore  printed  parts  of 
the  essay  in  the  Schweizer-Blatt  which  he  edited  during  the 
one  year  of  its  existence  in  1782. 

Another  essay  written  but  not  submitted  for  the  prize  was 
that  by  Ludwig  von  Hess,  who  although  a  German  was 
Councillor  to  the  Swedish  government  at  this  time.  Instead 
of  submitting  the  essay  he  published  it  immediately,  in  order 
that  he  "might  perhaps  prevent  one  more  infanticide."21 

18  Brief wechsel,  X,  352!. 
"57,  142. 

17  Not  Klingenstein,  as  Erich  Schmidt  has  it  in  his  "  Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner. 
Goethes  Jugendgenosse,"  p.  92. 

18  The  three  essays  were  published  together  in  book  form  in  1784  (not  1785. 
Cf.  Erich  Schmidt,  "Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner,"  p.  92)  by  Schwan  in  Mann- 
heim under,  the  title:   "  Drei  Preisschriften  iiber  die  Frage:  Welches  sind  die 
besten  ausfiihrbarsten  Mittel  dem  Kindermorde  abzuhelfen,  ohne  die  Unzucht 
zu  begiinstigen?" 

19  The  essay  was  entitled:  Ueber  Gesetzgebung  und  Kindermord.     Wahr- 
heiten  und  Traume.     Nachforschungen  und  Bilder.     Vom  Verfasser  Lienhards 
und     Gertrud.     Geschrieben     1780.     Herausgegeben     1783.     Frankfurt    und 
Leipzig. 

20  From  a  letter  dated  Feb.  13,  1781.     "Samtliche  Werke,"  I,  227. 

21  Cf.  Allgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek,  48,  96. 


6 

The  reviews  of  the  published  essays  in  the  Allgemeine 
Deutsche  Bibtiothek  are  of  particular  interest  because  they 
generally  rejected  the  remedies  proposed.  When  the  last 
essays  were  being  published  one  of  the  reviewers  remarked 
that  most  of  the  answers  were  "in  part  impracticable  and 
nonsensical  projects  of  government,  in  part  dangerous  quack- 
ery, in  part  insufficient  palliatives."22 

This  extensive  discussion  of  infanticide  in  editorials  and  in 
these  essays  was  preceded  by  the  publication  of  similar  dis- 
cussions for  thirty  years.  Frederick  the  Great  had  been  con- 
cerned with  the  problem  since  the  year  of  his  coronation.23 
Justus  Moser,  perhaps  the  most  eminent  and  at  the  same  time 
the  most  conservative  jurist  of  that  time,  had  attacked  the 
problem  in  a  number  of  smaller  essays,  the  most  important  of 
which  was  "Ueber  die  zu  unsern  Zeiten  verminderte  Schande 
der  Huren  und  Hurkinder."24  Isaak  Iselin  had  written  an 
article  "Gedanken  liber  den  Kindermord."25 

The  assertion  that  the  literature  on  the  subject  came  en- 
tirely from  the  camp  of  the  "philanthropists"  is  untenable, 
for  infanticide  was  of  interest  to  every  school  of  thought  and 
to  men  of  every  profession,  to  old  and  young,  to  the  learned 
and  the  unlearned.  There  was  Pestalozzi,  the  educator, 
Iselin  and  Schlozer,  the  publicists,  Moser,  the  jurist,  Kant, 
the  philosopher,  Pfeil,  the  physician,  Klippstein,  the  city 
official,  Kreuzfeld,  the  professor,  J.  G.  Schlosser,  the  overseer 
of  an  orphan  asylum,  Barkhausen,  the  lawyer,  Herder,  the 
preacher,  Burger,  Goethe  and  Schiller,  the  poets,  and  scores 
of  others  who  talked  of  and  wrote  on  the  subject.  It  is  im- 
portant to  remember  that  the  discussion  of  infanticide  was 
not  limited  to  a  few  "stormy"  youths  called  "original  ge- 
niuses," but  that  sagacious  men  of  every  calling  devoted  a 
part  of  their  best  effort  to  an  attempt  to  solve  this  problem. 

Goethe  himself  was  indeed  a  typical  representative  of  this 
period  in  portraying  the  fate  of  Gretchen.  For  the  infanticide 

22  Ibid.,  54,  176. 

23  Cf.  infra,  p.  35. 

24  Cf.  " Justus  Moser'ssammtlicheWerke."  Berlin  und  Stettin,  1798,  II,  i63ff. 
26  In  Ephemeriden  der  Menschheit,   1778.     Viertes  Stuck.     Cf.  also  Allge- 
meine Deutsche  Bibliothek,  39,  S93f. 


had  the  sympathy  of  every  believer  in  the  inherent  goodness 
of  human  nature.  It  was  she,  more  than  any  other  criminal, 
who  had  been  forced  by  circumstances  to  do  what  she  did  not 
wish  to  do.  And  the  number  of  those  who  were  compelled  to 
commit  the  crime  was  by  no  means  small.  Pestalozzi  tells 
how  he  felt  when  he  heard  that  infanticide  was  possible: 
"Infanticide!  Do  I  dream  or  am  I  awake!  Is  it  possible, 
this  deed?  Does  it  happen?  Does  the  unnamed  happen? 
No,  not  the  unnamed,  the  named,  the  crime  which  has  found 
expression  in  words.  Conceal  thy  face,  O  Century!  Bow 
down,  O  Europe!  From  the  seats  of  justice  comes  the  answer: 
my  children  are  killed  by  the  thousands  at  the  hands  of  those 
who  give  birth  to  them.  ...  In  vain  runs  the  blood  of  thy 
infanticides,  O  Europe!  Let  thy  rulers  remove  the  causes  of 
their  despair,  and  thou  wilt  save  their  children.  Thy  sword 
has  killed  many  an  infanticide  during  my  time,  but  I  shall  tell 
the  story  of  the  first  one  only!"26 

In  one  chapter  of  his  discourse  Pestalozzi  includes  fifteen 
cases  of  infanticide  which  he  took  from  the  records  of  the 
archives  of  Neuhof.  Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner  in  a  defence 
of  his  drama  " Die  Kindermorderinn "  said:  "There  is  no  kind 
of  crime  of  which  our  century  has  not  one  or  more  examples; 
regicides  have  been  quartered,  patricides  and  fratricides  have 
been  broken  on  the  wheel,  infanticides  without  number  have 
been  decapitated."27  Georg  Dietrich  List  in  his  Mannheim 
essay  recounts  the  causes  of  this  crime  and  then  concludes: 
"It  it  any  wonder,  then,  that  infanticide — for  so  sad  experi- 
ence teaches — is  in  our  days  becoming  more  and  more  fre- 
quent?"28 Schlozer  tells  of  old  women  who  made  it  a  business 
to  take  new-born  illegitimate  children  to  foundling  houses, 
the  tax  for  such  a  "service  of  love"  being  a  half  louis  d'or.29 
The  estates  of  Weimar  and  Eisenach  in  1763  petitioned 
Duchess  Anna  Amalia  to  abolish  public  church  penance  be- 
cause it  was  largely  responsible  "for  the  frequently  occurring 

26  In  the  above-mentioned  essay,  p.  434. 

*7  Cf.  Erich  Schmidt,  "Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner,  Goethes  Jugendgenosse." 
Jena,  1879,  p.  97. 

11  In  his  essay  "Ueber  Hurerey  und  Kindermord."     Mannheim,  1784,  p.  10. 
"  Brief wechsel,  VII,  150. 


8 

infanticide."30  Johann  Froitzheim  asserts  more  recently  that 
"  the  number  of  girls  executed  for  infanticide  in  Strassburg  was 
very  large,  especially  before  the  erection  of  the  foundling  house 
by  prefect  Klinglin  in  1749. "31  Pastor  Niederer  of  Sennwald, 
in  a  letter  to  Pestalozzi  under  date  of  August  n,  1800,  com- 
plained: "I  am  discovering  daily  from  examples  which  occur 
in  my  own  congregation  the  horrifying  extent  of  infanticide 
and  the  innumerable  prejudices  and  circumstances  which 
multiply  it."  And  Moser  reports  the  examination  of  785 
cases  of  illegitimate  sex  relations  on  the  part  of  young  girls, 
in  order  to  find  out,  if  possible,  what  types  of  girls  usually 
committed  infanticide."32 

'  Corroboration  of  these  statements  can  be  found  in  the 
archives  of  every  imperial  city  of  Europe.33  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  recount  here  what  these  records  reveal,  nor  is  it  worth 
while  to  attempt  to  connect  every  individual  literary  pro- 
duction on  the  subject  with  some  specific  case  in  real  life,  as 
Froitzheim  tried  to  do  with  Goethe's  "Faust,"  Wagner's 
"Die  Kindermorderinn,"  and  Lenz's  "Die  Soldaten."34  The 
fact  is  that  infanticide  was  so  common  in  the  last  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  that  unless  a  specific  case  is  mentioned  by 
the  writer  himself,  or  by  his  immediate  friends,  no  one  case 
can  be  looked  upon  as  the  sole  source  of  any  particular  literary 
production.  Frederick  the  Great  could  write  to  Voltaire 

80  Cf.     Bernhard  Suphan    "Goethe   im    Conseil,"  in    Vierteljahrschrift  fur 
Litteraturgeschichte.     Weimar,  1893,  VI,  604. 

81  In  his  "Goethe  und  Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner."     Strassburg,  1889,  p.  59. 

32  Justus    Moser,    "  Patriotische    Phantasien,"    in    "Sammtliche    Werke." 
Berlin,  1843,  V,  108. 

33  For  a  record  of  cases  of  infanticide  in  real  life  during  the  last  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  see  Karl  Goedeke,  "Gottfried  August  Burger  in  Gottingen 
und  Gelliehausen."     Hannover,   1873,  pp.  83-93;  Theodor  Gottlieb  Hippel, 
"  Nachricht  die  von  K*sche  Untersuchung  betreffend  "  in  "  Sammtliche  Werke," 
XI,  247ff.;  Kreuzfeld  in  his  essay,  pp.   in,   129;  "Der  neue  Pitaval.     Eine 
Sammlung  der  interessantesten  Criminalgeschichten  aller  Lander  aus  alterer 
und  neuerer  Zeit."     Leipzig,  1857-1890,  II,  4Oiff.  IV,  276ff.  XXIX.;  Archiv 
des  Criminalrechts,  Halle,  1798-1849,  II,  Art.  13,  III,  Art.  6;  C.  Spielmann, 
"Kindesmord   und  seine   Bestrafung  im    i7ten  Jahrhunderte,"   in  Nassovia: 
Zeitschrift  filr  nassauische  Geschichte   und   Heimatkunde.     Wiesbaden,   XIII, 
249ff.;  see  the  same  magazine,  IX,  i46ff.;  etc. 

34  In  his  "Goethe  und  Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner.     Ein  Wort  der  Kritik  an 
unsere  Goethe-Forscher."     Strassburg,  1889,  p.  45ff. 


in  I77735  that  "of  the  criminals  executed  the  most  were 
girls  who  killed  their  infants,  few  were  murderers  and  still 
fewer  highway  robbers,"  and  specifically  stated  that  the  num- 
ber of  these  criminals  was  from  fourteen  to  fifteen  annually. 
When  we  remember  that  because  of  his  efforts  for  more  than 
three  decades  to  solve  the  problem  of  unmarried  motherhood 
the  number  of  those  who  committed  infanticide  in  Prussia 
must  have  been  few  in  comparison  with  the  rest  of  western 
Europe,  where  all  the  old  laws  and  customs  were  driving  un- 
married mothers  to  infanticide,  and  consequently  in  west- 
ern Europe  the  number  of  these  hapless  creatures  must  have 
been  over  a  hundred  annually,  it  is  not  necessary  to  search  the 
archives  of  any  particular  city  to  find  a  single  case  of  infanti- 
cide which  might  have  inspired  three  "stormy"  youths  to 
write  dramas  on  the  same  subject. 

Suffice  it  to  refer  to  two  cases  of  infanticide  which  occurred 
in  the  early  eighties  of  the  eighteenth  century,  right  in  the 
middle  of  the  period  of  the  Storm  and  Stress.  The  one  is  that 
of  Katherine  Elisabeth  Erdmann  of  Benniehausen,  who  was 
tried  in  1781  in  a  court  in  which  Burger  sat  as  presiding  judge. 
Her  trial  revealed  that  she  was  in  every  sense  an  actual  infanti- 
cide, her  illegitimate  child  having  cried  before  she  killed  it.86 
Because  of  the  excellent  conduct  of  the  trial  by  Burger,  how- 
ever, she  was  not  sentenced  to  death.  Schlozer  in  reviewing 
another  case  suggested  that  it  was  the  attorney  for  the  de- 
fence, a  Mr.  Erxleben,  who  should  be  credited  for  this.  Pro- 
fessor Justus  Claproth  thought  differently.  As  a  lecturer  in 
the  faculty  of  law  in  the  University  of  Gottingen  he  thought  so 

"  Cf.  "Oeuvres  de  Frederic  le  Grand."  Berlin,  1853,  XXIII,  46if.[letter  of 
Oct.  ii,  1777. 

»6  Ever  since  the  publication  of  the  first  code  of  criminal  law  by  Charles  V 
(cf.  infra,  p.  29)  great  stress  had  been  laid  on  the  question:  Was  the  child  born 
alive  or  was  it  dead  at  birth?  Jurists  decided  that  a  child  had  been  killed  in- 
tentionally if  it  lived  at  birth.  The  usual  methods  for  determining  whether  a 
child  lived  at  birth  were:  (a)  The  lung  test.  The  lungs  of  the  dead  child  were 
placed  in  water:  if  they  swam,  they  contained  air  and  the  child  had  breathed, 
consequently  had  been  killed,  (b)  The  navel  cord  test.  If  the  navel  cord  was 
tied  when  the  child  was  found  there  was  evidently  no  intent  to  kill,  if  the  cord 
was  not  tied,  there  certainly  was  intent,  (c)  The  blue  mark  test.  The  body  of 
the  dead  child  was  carefully  examined  for  blue  marks.  If  some  were  found  force 
had  been  used  and  there  was  intentional  infanticide. 


10 

highly  of  the  conduct  of  the  case  by  Burger  that  he  published 
a  digest,  fifty  pages  in  length,  and  thereafter  used  it  in  his 
classroom  as  a  model  for  his  students.37 

The  case  of  Margarethe  Kolblinn  forms  a  striking  contrast 
to  that  presided  over  by  Burger.  This  unfortunate  girl,  who 
had  given  birth  to  a  dead  child,  in  1783  in  the  Upper  Palat- 
inate became  the  victim  of  judicial  arbitrariness.38  She 
was  a  girl  of  the  peasant  class,  had  ignorantly  concealed  her 
pregnancy  and  later  the  child-birth,  but  the  child  was  found, 
and  she  was  arrested  and  brought  to  trial  for  intentional  in- 
fanticide. At  the  trial  she  confessed  giving  birth  to  a  dead 
illegitimate  child,  but  the  court  refused  to  accept  her  testi- 
mony and  proceeded  with  the  usual  tests.  It  was  found  that 
she  had  failed  to  do  anything  to  make  conviction  on  the  tests 
impossible,  evidently  because  of  ignorance,  and  she  was 
therefore  declared  to  be  a  true  infanticide,  one  who  had  in- 
tentionally killed  her  child.  The  girl  protested  that  she  was 
not  guilty.  Several  members  of  the  court,  who  no  longer 
believed  in  the  efficacy  of  the  tests,  insisted  that  the  girl  must 
be  convicted  on  another  charge.  And  there  were  two  other 
charges  on  either  of  which  she  could  be  sentenced  to  death,  if 
found  guilty.  One  was  clandestine  pregnancy,  the  other 
clandestine  child-birth.  The  law  against  infanticide  primarily 
sought  the  elimination  of  unmarried  motherhood,  for  infanti- 
cide was  only  a  result  of  the  latter. 

Accordingly  the  girl  was  asked  if  she  had  not  heard  the 
reading  of  the  edict  against  the  concealment  of  pregnancy.39 
She  replied  that  she  had  not.  Upon  investigation  it  was  dis- 
covered that  the  decree  had  not  been  read  in  her  locality  be- 
cause the  health  of  the  town-crier,  especially  the  weakness 

87  The  digest  was  published  under  the  title:  "Nachtrag  zu  der  Sammlung 
verschiedener  gerichtlichen  vollstandigen  Acten."     Gottingen  und  Ruprecht, 
1782,  2d  ed.,  1790.    J.  P.  Vollhusen  in  a  letter  to  Burger  (May  23,  1783)  also 
speaks  very  highly  of  the  case.     See  Strodtmann,  "  Briefe  von  und  an  Burger, " 
II,  113- 

88  Cf.  Schlozer's  Stats- Anzeigen,  III,  issff.;  idem,  5i3ff.;  V,  386ff. 

19  An  edict  was  issued  by  Frederick  William  I,  the  predecessor  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  in  1720,  in  which  it  was  required  that  the  edict  be  read  four  times 
each  year  from  every  pulpit  in  the  kingdom.  Cf.  infra,  p.  33.  A  similar  decree 
was  issued  by  Louis  XIV  in  France,  1708.  See  Froitzheim,  "Goethe  und 
Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner,"  p.  43. 


11 

of  his  voice,  hindered  him  from  performing  this  important 
duty.  The  judges  decided  that  this  made  no  difference, 
ignorance  of  the  law  excused  no  man.  They  overruled  all 
objections  and  sentenced  the  girl  to  death  on  the  charge  of 
clandestine  child-birth.  Several  days  later  she  was  executed 
by  decapitation  "as  her  well-deserved  punishment  and  for  the 
sake  of  others  as  a  frightening  example."  The  reporter  for 
Schlozer's  Stats -Anzeigen  entitled  his  report  "Justiz-Mord." 
In  Amberg,  where  the  trial  and  execution  took  place,  there 
was  a  great  revolt.  Men  who  were  prominently  connected 
with  the  trial  were  exiled.  Throughout  Germany  the  case 
caused  much  discussion,  for  it  was  typical  of  the  injustice 
inflicted  on  infanticides. 

In  the  following  pages  I  shall  try  to  supply  in  detail  the  his- 
torical setting  which  is  necessary  to  a  perfect  understanding  of 
Goethe's  pathetic  tragedy  of  Gretchen.  To  what  state  of 
public  opinion  on  the  subject  of  child-murder  did  he  address 
himself?  If  that  opinion  was  hard  and  cruel  as  compared  with 
that  of  our  own  time,  to  what  is  the  fact  due?  What  were  its 
antecedents  in  social  and  religious  usage,  in  legislation  and  in 
the  administration  of  the  law?  When  did  the  revolt  against 
the  inhuman  treatment  of  unmarried  mothers  set  in,  what 
form  did  it  take,  who  were  its  leaders,  and  what  its  effects? 
Finally,  I  shall  discuss  more  fully  than  has  been  done  hitherto 
the  poems,  plays  and  novels  which  deal  with  the  subject  and 
reflect  the  changing  phases  of  public  opinion  with  regard  to  it. 
In  this  way  I  seek  to  make  a  contribution  to  the  history  of 
modern  humanitarianism  in  one  of  its  most  interesting  and 
important  aspects. 


CHAPTER  I 

TRADITIONAL  STATUS  OF  THE  UNMARRIED  MOTHER         ^ 

Whether  mothers  were  married  or  unmarried  in  the  first 
stage  of  the  evolution  of  the  human  race  is  a  question  that  has 
been  debated  much  during  the  last  two  centuries.  Our  final 
decision,  if  it  ever  can  be  final,  will  depend  much  on  our  defi- 
nition of  marriage.  If  we  accept  Westermarck's  definition 
that  marriage  "is  a  more  or  less  durable  connection  between 
male  and  female  lasting  beyond  the  mere  act  of  propagation 
till  after  the  birth  of  the  offspring,"1  and  if  it  is  true  that  this 
connection  was  an  institution  of  nature,  then  the  first  human 
mother  was  married.  But  Todd2  and  with  him  most  modern 
students  of  anthropology  deny  that  marriage  was  an  institu- 
tion of  nature  and  assert  that  "some  form  of  sex-pairing  and 
the  maternal  relation  existed  long  before  the  marriage  insti- 
tution was  consummated."  According  to  these  scholars 
the  most  primitive  family  consisted  of  a  mother  and  her  child, 
the  father  having  been  merely  an  instinctive  progenitor,  who 
knew  nothing  about  his  duties  as  the  "head  of  the  house." 
There  are  a  number  of  good  reasons  for  this  attitude.  The 
first  is  the  disproof  of  the  popular  belief  that  natural  attraction 
exerted  an  influence  not  only  in  bringing  about  sex  union  but 
in  keeping  the  male  and  female  together  for  the  purpose  of 
assuring  the  birth  and  growth  of  the  child.  The  fact  is  that 
woman  is  repugnant  to  the  natural  man  during  pregnancy 
and  the  duty  of  the  husband  to  his  wife  during  that  period 
and  of  the  father  to  help  care  for  the  child  was  imposed  by 
society  and  not  by  nature. 

A  second  reason  is  given  by  Hartland,8  who  has  recently 

1  Edward  Westermarck,   "The  History  of   Human   Marriage."     London, 
1891,  2d  ed.,  1894,  p.  19. 

2  Arthur  James  Todd,  "The  Primitive  Family  as  an  Educational  Agency." 
New  York  and  London,  1913,  p.  21. 

'  Edwin  Sidney  Hartland, ' '  Primitive  Paternity.  The  Myth  of  Supernatural 
Birth  in  relation  to  the  History  of  the  Family."  London,  1910. 

12 


13 

collected  a  wealth  of  material  on  the  subject  of  primitive 
paternity,  all  of  which  goes  to  prove  that  all  primitive  peoples 
believed  that  impregnation  was  the  result  of  some  supernatural 
agency,  they  being  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  it  resulted  from 
sex  union. 

These  and  other  reasons  have  led  scholars  to  conclude  that 
marriage  or  the  union  of  father  and  mother  jointly  to  bear  the 
burdens  of  family  life  was  brought  about  "by  a  more  or  less 
unconscious  attempt  to  solve  that  group  of  life  problems  con- 
nected with  self-maintenance  and  the  perpetuation  of  the 
species."  It  was  the  law  of  necessity  which  forced  the  father 
to  become  an  integral  part  of  the  human  family.  Marriage  in 
that  case  must  have  been  a  social  and  not  a  natural  institution 
and  the  first  human  mother  was  unmarried.  The  perform- 
ance of  a  fixed  ceremony  to  legalize  marriage  is  a  much  later 
development  and  was  admittedly  an  institution  of  society. 

From  these  statements  two  important  facts  may  be  deduced. 
First,  the  institution  of  the  family  was  based  on  the  protection 
and  care  of  the  child,  the  mother  instinctively  performing 
these  functions.  Second,  the  most  primitive  father  became  a 
bona  fide  member  of  the  family  by  protecting  her  who  was 
soon  to  be  a  mother  by  him,  and  assisting  in  the  protection 
and  care  of  their  joint  offspring.  As  far  back  as  we  are  able 
to  trace  the  history  of  man  the  father  who  left  the  mother  of 
his  child  in  the  lurch  was  considered  a  monster.  We  may 
believe  in  anonymous  paternity  among  our  earliest  ancestors 
and  still  be  compelled  to  admit  that  long  before  the  beginning 
of  our  era  our  forebears  had  learned  by  experience  that  a 
family  which  consisted  of  a  father,  a  mother  and  their  child 
was  a  more  perfect  institution  to  guarantee  the  perpetuation 
of  the  race  than  a  family  which  consisted  of  a  mother  and  her 
babe,  with  the  father  roaming  the  wilderness. 

Since  the  family  is  based  on  protection,  a  father  or  husband, 
if  he  was  able,  could  care  for  several  or  many  women  as  well 
as  for  one.  Darwin  believed  that  "men  aboriginally  lived 
in  small  communities,  each  with  a  single  wife,  or  if  powerful, 
with  several,  whom  he  jealously  guarded  against  all  other 
men."4  He  made  the  protection  dependent  upon  jealousy 

4  Cf.  Descent  of  Man,  II,  346. 


14 

instead  of  necessity.  In  either  case  a  man  had  as  many  wives 
as  he  could  protect.  And  men  really  had  more  than  one  wife 
among  primitive  peoples.  But  they  were  not  necessarily  of 
the  same  rank.  It  was  only  natural  that  the  primitive  man 
should  differentiate  among  his  wives.  The  distinction  be- 
tween legal  and  illegal  or  natural  wives  came  into  existence  in 
this  way,  and  it  was  based  on  the  fact  that  the  legal  wife  in- 
herited the  property  of  her  husband  while  the  other  wives  did 
not.  In  order  to  make  a  wife  legal  it  was  necessary  to  comply 
with  a  fixed  ceremony,  to  enter  into  a  contract,  just  as  we 
make  a  contract  before  we  can  enjoy  property  rights.  Legal 
marriage  was  based  on  property  rights.  This  explains  the 
universal  custom  among  primitive  men  of  having  legal  (right) 
and  natural  wives  (concubines).  A  woman  became  a  man's 
natural  wife  by  sex  union  and  his  subsequent  protection  of  her. 
She  might  never  become  his  legal  wife,  but  she  was  neverthe- 
less his  wife.  The  children  of  both  wives,  the  legal  and  the 
natural,  at  first  enjoyed  the  same  privileges;  they  both  in- 
herited from  the  father,  although  the  eldest  son  usually  suc- 
ceeded the  father  in  his  estate.  This  was  especially  true 
among  the  Hebrews.6  In  the  earliest  records  of  the  ancient 
Teutons  we  already  read  of  legal  and  natural  children,  the 
former  being  called  so  because  of  their  legal  mother,  the  latter 
after  their  natural  mother.  The  legal  mother  was  entitled  to 
dower,  the  legal  children  to  the  inheritance  of  property.  In 
all  other  respects  the  natural  mother  enjoyed  the  same  privi- 
leges with  the  legal  mother,  the  natural  children  with  the  legal 
children,  foremost  of  which  privileges  was  the  father's  pro- 
tection. There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  our  ancient 
Teutonic  fathers  that  would  lead  us  to  believe  that  they  did 
not  protect  and  care  for  their  wives  and  children.6 

6  Cf.  Genesis  21,  10.  Abraham  had  two  sons,  Isaac  by  his  legal  wife,  Sarah, 
and  Ishmael  by  Sarah's  handmaid,  Hagar.  Their  equality  of  rights  is  indicated 
by  Sarah's  request  to  Abraham:  "Cast  out  the  handmaid  and  her  son,  for  the 
son  of  the  handmaid  shall  not  be  heir  with  my  son,  even  with  Isaac."  Cf.  also 
Gen.  29  and  30.  Jacob  had  two  legal  wives,  Leah  and  Rachel,  and  two  natural 
wives,  Zilpah  and  Bilhah.  By  these  four  wives  he  had  twelve  children,  all 
enjoying  the  same  privileges.  He  was  father,  and  therefore  protector,  to  them  all. 

*  Cf .  Joseph  Freisen,  "  Geschichte  des  Canonischen  Eherechts  bis  zum  Verfall 
der  Glossenlitteratur."  Tubingen,  1888,  for  a  detailed  discussion  of  this  phase 
of  the  sex  problem  among  primitive  peoples,  especially  p.  no. 


15 

When  primitive  peoples  discovered  that  pregnancy  was  due 
to  sex  union,  they  set  up  the  rule  that,  since  the  father  and 
mother  had  joined  themselves  together  to  protect  and  care  for 
the  child  as  well  as  for  sex  union,  the  sole  object  of  marriage 
was  the  propagation  and  rearing  of  children.  That  marriage 
would  automatically  cease  to  exist  when  all  the  children  were 
grown  up  and  no  more  children  could  be  propagated  did  not 
occur  to  them.  Their  erroneous  conclusion  was  based  on  an 
erroneous  observation.  They  saw  that  the  propagation  and 
rearing  of  children  did  consume  all  the  time  of  married  people, 
but  failed  to  realize  that  it  did  not  need  to  do  so. 

Such  notions  were  the  most  current  until  the  institution  of 
the  Christian  church.  Christ  did  not  marry,  but  no  word  of 
his  can  be  construed  as  hostile  to  marriage.  What  he  says  of 
sexual  transgressions,  notably  his  refusal  to  condemn  the 
woman  taken  in  adultery,  evinces  a  tolerant  spirit.  Of  the 
unmarried  mother  he  never  spoke  at  all.  Christ  condemned 
the  manner  of  thinking  which  made  sexual  sins  possible,  he 
did  not  condemn  those  who  had  committed  these  sins. 

It  was  quite  impossible  for  the  church  to  fix  its  attitude 
toward  the  sex  problem,  especially  toward  marriage,  by  the 
scant  statements  of  Christ.  It  was  the  teaching  of  Paul  rather 
than  that  of  Christ  which  formed  the  basis  of  canon  law  on 
sex  matters.  Paul  taught  that  marriage  was  good,  but  celi- 
bacy better.  "It  is  good  for  a  man  not  to  touch  a  woman"; 
he  wrote,  "nevertheless  to  avoid  fornication,  let  each  man 
have  his  own  wife  and  let  each  woman  have  her  own  husband. 
He  that  giveth  his  virgin  in  marriage  doeth  well,  but  he  that 
giveth  her  not  in  marriage  doeth  better.  ...  If  they  (the 
unmarried  and  widows)  cannot  contain,  let  them  marry; 
for  it  is  better  to  marry  than  to  burn."7  Augustine  accepted 
Paul's  teaching  and  added  that  "unmarried  children  would 
shine  in  heaven  as  beaming  stars,  whilst  their  parents  would 
look  like  the  dim  ones."  Ambrosius  set  up  the  rule:  nuptiae 
terram  replent,  virginitas  paradisum.8  So  certain  were  these 
old  church  fathers  that  "marriage  was  profane  and  impure " 

7 1  Corinthians,  VII. 

8  Cf.  Freisen,  loc.  cit.,  p.  25. 


16 

that  Tertullian  insisted  that,  in  order  to  keep  morality  on 
earth,  celibacy  must  be  chosen  even  if  mankind  should  perish.9 

There  are  good  reasons  why  some  people  should  not  marry, 
that  is,  should  refrain  from  the  gratification  of  a  natural  and 
necessary  instinct  and  renounce  the  ethical  benefits  accruing 
from  such  a  union.  We  honor  the  man  or  woman  who  re- 
frains from  marriage  because  of  some  physical  or  mental  ail- 
ment which  is  inheritable  and  would  cause  suffering  to  prog- 
eny. We  also  admire  the  man  or  woman  who  voluntarily 
refrains  from  marriage  for  the  sake  of  some  nobly  conceived 
life-work  which  is,  or  is  sincerely  believed  to  be,  incompatible 
with  marriage  and  the  rearing  of  children.  Such  sacrifice  is 
ethical  and  may  be  heroic. 

Paul  and  the  church  fathers,  however,  did  not  place  the 
main  emphasis  on  this  idea  of  sacrifice  or  renunciation  for 
exceptional  cases,  they  made  it  a  fixed  rule  for  everybody. 
They  thought  marriage  was  at  best  a  make-shift,  a  state 
wherein  it  was  permissible  to  satisfy  impure  and  unholy  de- 
sires, the  satisfaction  of  which  a  carnal  nature  had  made  neces- 
sary. They  were  not  at  all  concerned  about  the  future  of  the 
race,  they  sincerely  believed  that  the  world  would  come  to  an 
end  even  in  their  day  and  generation.  They  failed  to  see  that 
the  sex  impulse  is  holy,  if  anything  is  holy,  since  without  it  no 
holiness,  or  religion  or  philosophy  would  exist.  Instead  of 
making  marriage  a  sacred  institution  in  which  the  powers  of 
man  normally  reach  their  greatest  development,  they  made  it 
a  concession  to  his  weakness.  Paul  said:  "He  that  is  unmar- 
ried careth  for  the  things  that  belong  to  the  Lord,  how  he  may 
please  the  Lord :  but  he  that  is  married  careth  for  the  things 
that  are  of  the  world,  how  he  may  please  his  wife."  The 
experience  of  the  race  has  proved  that  Paul  and  the  church 
fathers  were  mistaken.  Celibacy,  except  as  a  necessity  or  a 
sacrifice,  is  neither  a  natural  nor  a  reasonable  institution. 
On  the  contrary,  the  chief  factor  which  increases  "immorality 
is  the  growing  number  of  unmarried  people.  It  is  proved 
that  in  the  cities  of  Europe,  [and  our  cities  are  no  exception] 
prostitution  increases  according  as  the  number  of  marriages 

•  Westermarck,  lot.  cit.,  p.  154. 


17 

decreases.  It  has  also  been  established,  .  .  .  that  the 
fewer  the  marriages  contracted  in  a  year,  the  greater  is  the 
ratio  of  illegitimate  births.  Thus,  by  making  celibacy  more 
common,  civilization  promotes  sexual  irregularity."10 

The  early  church  fathers  made  another  mistake.  They 
asserted  that  only  such  marriage  as  the  church  sanctioned 
was  legal,  all  other  marriage  being  fornication.  Therefore 
this  rule  was  laid  down:  Marriage  in  order  to  have  the  ap- 
proval of  the  church  must  be  legal,  that  is,  a  man  and  a 
woman  must  go  through  a  fixed  ceremony,  so  that  both  have 
property  rights  as  to  each  other.  The  church  dictated  what 
this  ceremony  should  be  and  therefore  secured  absolute  author- 
ity in  sex  matters.  The  institution  of  marriage  as  a  sacra- 
ment was  a  much  later  development.11  The  main  element  in 
this  sacrament  was  the  teaching  of  the  indissolubility  of  mar- 
riage. While  heretofore  property  rights  of  the  wife  as  to  her 
husband  depended  upon  the  legality  of  marriage,  the  legality 
of  marriage  now  became  dependent  upon  a  ceremony,  arbi- 
trarily dictated  by  the  church. 

By  this  teaching  the  church  immediately  came  into  conflict 
with  the  practice  of  concubinage,  which  existed  among  all  the 
peoples  over  which  it  exerted  its  influence.  Since  concu- 
bines, that  is,  natural  wives,  among  the  Romans  enjoyed  the 
same  privileges  as  legal  wives,  except  the  right  of  inheriting 
property,  the  church  asserted  that  such  concubinage  was 
negation  of  marriage.  Concubinage  was  such  a  fixed  prac- 
tice that  the  church  was  compelled  to  permit  it  even  after 
it  decided  in  favor  of  legal  marriage.  But  the  hierarchy  con- 
stantly worked  against  it,  generally  by  preventing  those  who 
administered  for  the  church  from  advancing  in  position  if 
they  practiced  concubinage.  It  took  five  hundred  years  to 
eliminate  the  practice  among  the  priesthood  and  to  make  celi- 
bacy obligatory;  and  even  after  this  many  priests  must  have 
practiced  it,  for  it  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that 
practically  every  council  of  the  church  immediately  preceding 
the  Reformation  considered  the  matter  of  permitting  priests 

10  Westermarck,  loc.  cil.,  p.  70. 

11  Cf.  Freisen,  loc.  cit.,  p.  2pff. 


18 

to  marry  because  of  the  existence  of  so  much  immorality.  By 
this  constant  opposition  to  concubinage,  the  church  contrib- 
uted much  to  the  establishment  of  monogamy  as  the  standard 
marriage.  The  assertion  that  the  Reformation  abolished  con- 
cubinage in  Europe  is  untenable,  for  concubinage  or  some 
modification  of  it  has  not  ceased  to  exist  in  European  countries 
to  this  day.  The  mistresses  of  the  eighteenth  and  the 
paramours  of  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries  were 
and  are  concubines  or  natural  wives  under  a  different  name. 

The  mistake  of  the  church  fathers  lies  not  so  much  in 
placing  emphasis  on  the  marriage  ceremony  as  a  necessary 
condition  of  legality,  but  rather  in  the  grounding  of  this  cere- 
mony on  the  traditions  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  preference  to 
a  first-hand  knowledge  of  contemporary  human  life.  Instead 
of  encouraging  its  constituents  to  marry  in  accordance  with 
the  best  known  requirements  of  a  successful  marriage,  the 
church  virtually  dictated  who  could  and  who  could  not  marry 
by  preventing  from  marriage  all  those  who  came  in  conflict 
with  the  superstitions  of  a  primitive  people  who  belonged  to  a 
very  different  civilization. 

Another  problem  which  confronted  the  church  was  the 
practice  of  exposure  and  killing  of  children  by  legal  parents. 
Sumner  asserts  that  "Abortion,  exposure  and  infanticide  were 
and  still  are  so  nearly  universal  in  savage  life,  either  as  ego- 
istic or  group  policy,  that  exceptions  to  the  practice  of  these 
vices  are  noteworthy  phenomena."13 

13  William  Graham  Sumner,  "Folkways."  Boston,  1907,  p.  315.  Cf.  also 
Joseph  Miiller,  "Das  sexuelle  Leben  der  christlichen  Kulturvolker,"  Leipzig, 
1904,  page  no.  We  read:  "Noch  zu  erwahnen  ist  das  Recht  der  Kinderaussetz- 
ung,  das  bei  den  alten  Germanen,  wie  bei  alien  Naturvolkern  in  Ubung  stand."; 
Paul  Wilutzky,  " Vorgeschichte  des  Rechts."  Breslau,  1903,  II,  sf.:  "One 
can  calmly  assert,  .  .  .  terrible  as  it  may  seem  now  .  .  .  that  infanticide, 
particularly  that  of  girls,  was  a  legal  arrangement  of  convenience  among  all 
primitive  peoples  of  the  world."  John  Ferguson  McLennan,  "  Studies  in  Ancient 
History,"  London,  1896,  Chapter  VII,  entitled  Female  Infanticide.  See 
further  Edward  Westermarck,  "The  History  of  Human  Marriage,"  London, 
1894,  p.  3iiff.;  Arthur  James  Todd,  "The  Primitive  Family  as  an  Educational 
Agency,"  New  York  and  London,  1913,  p.  ia6f.;  Elsie  Clews  Parsons,  "The 
Family,"  New  York  and  London,  1906,  p.  44f.;  Albert  Hermann  Post,  "Grund- 
riss  der  ethnologischen  Jurisprudenz,"  Oldenburg  und  Leipzig,  1895,  p.  8ff.; 
C.  N.  Starcke,  "The  Primitive  Family,"  New  York,  1889,  p.  I29ff.;  etc. 


19 

This  fact,  I  fear,  is  not  known  sufficiently  well  among  civi- 
lized nations  today.  If  it  were  some  of  the  peculiar  notions 
and  prejudices  on  the  sex  problem  could  not  exist.14 

Exposure  and  infanticide  were  at  first  due  to  natural  causes. 
Foremost  among  these  was  malformation.  It  was  the  suffer- 
ing which  the  imperfectibility  of  the  child  entailed  upon  both 
itself  and  its  fellows  that  caused  its  elimination  from  the  human 
family.  According  to  the  twelve  tablets  of  Romulus  infanti- 
cide and  exposure  were  very  common  practices  in  the  early 
days  of  Rome.  The  father  was  permitted  under  certain  con- 
ditions to  put  to  death  children  over  three  years  of  age  and 
to  expose  and  kill  children  under  three  years  if  they  had  been 
declared  monstrous  by  five  neighbors.  "Seneca  refers  to 
the  killing  of  defective  children  as  a  wise  and  unquestioned 
custom."15  Aristotle  had  long  before  expressed  a  similar 
opinion.  "A  missionary  recently  returned  from  New  Guinea 
reported  a  case  where  the  parents  of  a  sickly,  peevish  child, 
probably  teething,  calmly  decided  to  kill  it."16 

The  second  natural  cause  of  these  practices  was  over- 
population, which  had  poverty  as  its  counterpart.  Parents 
exposed  or  killed  their  children  if  they  were  too  poor  to  support 
them,  or  if  they  anticipated  poverty,  or  if  they  felt  that  the 
burdens  incurred  by  caring  for  more  than  a  few  children  were 
too  great.  "Australian  life  formerly  was  full  of  privations  on 
account  of  limited  supplies  of  food  and  water.  Therefore  a 
woman  could  not  carry  two  children.  If  she  had  one  who 
could  not  yet  march  and  bore  another,  the  latter  was  killed. 
In  Dutch  New  Guinea  the  women  will  not  rear  more  than  two 
or  three  children  each.  .  .  .  They  shirk  the  trouble  of  rearing 
them.  Wilkins  says  that  six-sevenths  of  the  population  of 

14  Probably  Tacitus  led  historians  of  German  primitive  life  astray  by  his 
assertion  that  the  old  Teutons  did  not  restrict  the  number  of  children  or  commit 
infanticide.     Modern  scholars  have  tried  to  correct  this  erroneous  opinion. 
Cf.  Karl  Weinhold,  "Deutsche  Frauen  im  Mittelalter,"  I,  91;  Jakob  Grimm, 
"Deutsche  Rechtsalterthiimer,"   Leipzig,    1899,    II,    2S4f.;   Konrad   Maurer, 
"Die  Wasserweihe  des  germanischen  Heidenthumes,"  Miinchen,  1880,  p.  4; 
G.  Steinhausen,  "  Germanische  Kultur  in  der  Urzeit,"  Leipzig,  1910,  p.  S9f.  in 
No.  75  of  "  Aus  Natur  und  Geisteswelt." 

15  Cf.  Sumner,  loc.  cit.,  p.  319. 

16  Idem,  p.  317. 


20 

India  have  for  ages  practiced  female  infanticide.  German 
rulers  formerly  exposed  infants  lest  dependent  persons  should 
be  multiplied."17 

A  third  natural  cause  was  superstition.  Twins  were  always 
looked  upon  with  awe.  Some  of  the  ancients  argued:  So 
many  children,  so  many  fathers.18  Therefore  one  or  both 
children  were  killed.  Dreams  when  unfavorable  were  taken 
as  bad  omens  and  the  child  was  killed.19  These  examples 
could  be  multiplied  indefinitely. 

People  naively  looked  upon  the  child  as  the  fruit  and  prop- 
erty of  parents,  and  found  in  abortion,  exposure  and  infanticide 
nothing  sinful.  The  moral  duty  to  the  new-born  child  was  a 
development  of  a  later  civilization.  The  moral  duty  to  the 
unborn  is  becoming  a  vital  part  of  our  civilization  today  for 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  race.  It  is  to  these  horrible 
practices,  even  if  natural,  that  Tyler  applied  the  dictum: 
Infanticide  arises  from  hardness  of  life  rather  than  from 
hardness  of  heart.20 

But  these  practices  did  not  remain  within  the  naturally 
prescribed  boundaries.  With  the  refinement  of  society  they 
fell  into  abuse.  Where  before  only  the  father  had  the  right  to 
commit  these  practices  as  part  of  his  patria  poles tas,  it  was 
now  acquired  by  the  grandmother  of  the  child,  and  then  by 
the  brother  of  the  mother  of  the  child.21  Infanticide  now 
ceased  to  be  a  rightful  privilege,  it  became  a  privileged  right, 
by  which  a  child  might  be  eliminated  from  society  to  the  end 
of  procuring  any  selfish  desire.  Just  preceding  the  introduc- 
tion of  Christianity  in  Greece  and  Italy,  "children  were  ex- 
posed and  killed  on  account  of  luxury,  egoism  and  vice." 
Pagan  and  Christian  authorities  speak  of  infanticide  as  the 
crying  vice  of  the  empires.22  Among  the  Scandinavians  the 

17  Cf.  Sumner,  loc.  cit.,  p.  3isf. 

18  Cf.  Alwin  Schultz,  "Das  hofische  Leben."     Leipzig,  1889,  I,  145. 

19  Karl  Weinhold,  "Deutsche  Frauen  im  Mittelalter,"  I,  93*>     Cf.  Schiller, 
"Die  Braut  von  Messina." 

20  Cf.  Todd,  loc.  cit.,  p.  128. 

21Liafburh,  the  mother  of  Liudger,  narrowly  escaped  death  by  drowning 
because  the  grandmother  was  fearful  that  she  would  have  all  granddaughters 
and  no  grandsons.  Cf.  Vita  S.  Liutgeri  in  Pertz'  "Monumenta  Germaniae 
Historica,"  II,  406,  cap.  6  and  7. 

12  Cf.  Sumner,  p.  319. 


21 

father  would  expose  a  child  to  take  revenge  for  an  insult  on 
the  part  of  his  wife.23  Or  the  child  of  a  concubine  might  be 
killed  because  of  the  jealousy  of  the  right  wife.24  A  brother 
habitually  killed  the  child  of  his  sister  if  its  birth  caused  the 
death  of  the  mother.25  The  old  Vikings  extended  a  spear  to 
the  new-born  boy.  If  the  child  seized  it,  it  was  allowed  to 
live.  Because  Olver,  a  powerful  Viking,  did  not  administer 
this  test,  he  was  nicknamed  "barnakarl,"  children's  man.26 
More  commonly  the  life  of  the  child  was  made  dependent 
upon  the  performance  of  a  fixed  ceremony  similar  to  our  mod- 
ern ceremony  of  baptism.  This  ceremony  is  usually  called 
"Wasserweihe."27 

Immediately  after  the  birth  of  a  child  the  father  was  sum- 
moned, and  the  child  was  placed  either  on  his  knee  or  on  the 
floor  before  him.  If  he  decided  that  the  child  should  live  he 
took  it  up  in  his  arms.  Then  water  was  poured  on  the  child, 
a  name  was  given  and  generally  it  was  presented  with  a  gift. 
Not  until  then  was  nourishment  given  to  the  child.  If  the 
child  was  not  taken  up  by  the  father,  it  was  immediately 
exposed  or  killed  without  baptism  and  without  food.  If 
either  of  these  two  conditions  had  been  fulfilled  it  became 
illegal  to  kill  a  child.  Another  important  element  was  at- 
tached to  this  ceremony.  From  the  time  that  a  child  was 
baptized,  it  had  property  rights.  The  importance  attached 
to  this  fact  is  attested  by  the  long  survival  of  the  custom  of 
reckoning  the  attainment  of  property  rights  from  the  time  of 
baptism.  In  Sweden  this  custom  remained  until  1734,  in 
Norway  until  1854,  and  in  Denmark  until  1857. 

So  firmly  were  these  practices  fixed  in  the  mores  that  the 
church  was  unable  to  convince  its  constituents  of  the  wrong- 
ness  of  them  until  it  introduced  a  mystic  religious  element. 
In  the  year  418  A.  D.  Augustine  succeeded  at  the  great  Car- 
thaginian general  synod  in  securing  the  adoption  of  a  canon 

23  Cf.  Finnboga  s.  bins  ramma  2/4. 

24  Cf.  Vatnsdaela37/59- 
28  Cf.  Holmverja  8/19. 

26  Cf.  Karl  Weinhold,  "  Altnordisch.es  Leben."     Berlin,  1856,  p.  260. 

27  Cf.  Konrad  Maurer,  "Ueber  die  Wasserweihe  des  germanischen  Heiden- 
thumes."     Miinchen,  1880. 


22 

which  asserted  that  children  who  died  unbaptizedwent  to  a 
middle  place,  half  way  between  the  place  of  punishment  and 
the  place  of  bliss.  The  old  Teutons  under  the  influence  of 
Christianity  believed  that  unbaptized  children  went  to  a  place 
between  Gohoater  and  Gahtil,  the  clouds  and  heaven.28 
There  was  introduced  a  custom  of  refusing  to  bury  unbaptized 
children  in  sacred  ground.  But  just  as  natural  sympathy  held 
back  the  old  church  fathers  from  condemning  the  unbaptized 
child  directly  to  hell,  so  this  custom  did  not  force  the  burial 
of  these  children  in  non-sacred  ground.  They  were  placed  in 
the  cemetery  wall,  half  way  between  sacred  and  non-sacred 
ground.  Laistner  tells  of  a  place  in  Tirol  at  Reit  where  not 
so  long  ago  there  could  be  found  alongside  the  large  cemetery 
a  small  plot  of  ground,  which  was  called  "the  church-yard  of 
the  innocents,"  because  in  it  only  infants  who  died  unbaptized 
were  buried.  Such  burying  places  were  also  to  be  found  in 
many  other  villages.  Maurer  asserts  that  the  proposition 
that  unbaptized  children  must  not  be  buried  in  the  conse- 
crated cemeteries  was  so  firmly  established  that  there  was 
even  doubt  as  to  whether  an  unborn  child  should  be  buried 
with  its  dead  mother  in  the  same  cemetery.29 

This  unbiblical  and  unchristian  teaching  of  the  church  that 
children  who  died  unbaptized  went  to  a  place  somewhere 
between  heaven  and  hell  "affected  the  minds  of  the  masses 
more  than  the  suffering  or  death  of  the  infants  ever  had." 
The  intensity  of  its  influence  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  this 
teaching  is  still  believed  by  members  in  many  divisions  of  the 
Christian  church.  Infanticide  by  legal  parents  has  practically 
ceased  in  civilized  countries,  but  abortion,  its  substitute, 
has  not.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  church  contributed 
much  to  end  this  practice  but  its  influence  did  not  do  it  alone. 
Sumner  thinks  that  "in  reality  nothing  has  put  an  end  to 
infanticide  but  the  advance  in  the  arts  (increased  economic 
power),  by  virtue  of  which  parents  can  provide  for  children."30 

28  Cf.  Ludwig  Laistner  in  an  article  "Nobishaus  und  Verwandtes."     Ger- 
mania,  XXVI,  85». 

29  Maurer,  loc.  cit.,  p.  23f.:  "And  if  a  woman  with  child  dies,  she  shall  be 
buried  as  other  people,  and  the  child  shall  not  be  taken  from  her." 

30  "Folkways,"  p.  321. 


23 

We  have  considered  the  sex  problem  from  the  angle  of 
legitimacy,  in  order  to  bring  into  relief  the  development  of  the 
institution  of  marriage,  and  the  origin  of  the  terms  "legal," 
"natural,"  "illegal,"  "married"  and  "unmarried,"  as  applied 
to  the  mother.  As  far  back  as  there  are  records  of  men  any 
sex  union  which  did  not  result  in  marriage,  if  pregnancy  re- 
sulted, was  looked  upon  with  animosity  and  met  with  severe 
punishment.  Sex  union  which  involved  adultery  was  prob- 
ably the  first  transgression  to  which  the  term  illegitimacy  was 
applied.  Fornication  of  the  unmarried  came  later  under  the 
legal  taboo.  The  old  Hebrews  looked  upon  illegitimate  im- 
pregnation, that  is  rape  and  adultery,  as  the  greatest  of  crimes 
and  punished  it  with  stoning  to  death  or  burning  alive.81 
Among  other  primitive  peoples  the  man  who  committed  adul- 
tery or  fornication  was  killed  or  flogged,  his  head  was  shaved 
or  his  ears  were  cut  off,  one  of  his  eyes  was  put  out,  his  legs 
were  speared,  etc.  A  woman  who  was  found  guilty  of  either 
of  these  crimes  was  beaten  or  killed,  disfigured  by  cutting  off 
her  nose  or  her  ears,  her  head  was  shaved,  etc.32  Tacitus  says 
that  "the  punishment  for  adultery  among  the  Teutons  is 
immediate  and  is  usually  left  to  the  men.  After  shearing  off 
her  hair  and  undressing  her,  the  husband  kicks  his  wife  out  of 
the  house  in  the  presence  of  all  the  neighbors  and  drives  her 
with  heavy  blows  through  the  whole  village."33  Among  the 
West  Goths  the  adulteress  was  treated  very  harshly.  Her 
shawl  was  torn  from  her  shoulders  and  the  back  part  of  her 
shirt  was  cut  off.34  The  oldest  Teutonic  law  required  that  a 
man  who  had  impregnated  a  maiden  should  be  killed  like  an 
adulterer.  The  fallen  girl  was  either  killed  or  exiled  from 
home  and  country  by  being  sold  into  slavery.35 

The  principle  upon  which  these  punishments  were  based 
was  that  every  offense  must  be  punished  according  to  its 
gravity.  Fundamentally  it  was  a  law  of  revenge,  an  eye  for 

11  For  the  attitude  of  the  Hebrews  toward  adultery  see  Gen.  34;  38;  Judges 
19,  22f.;  Judith  13,  if.;  Numbers  25. 

32  Cf.  Westermarck,  pp.  121,  122. 

33  Germania,  chapter  19. 

84  See  Weinhold,  "Altnordisches  Leben,"  p.  250. 

85  Idem,  p.  255. 


2* 

an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth.  No  attempt  was  made  to 
examine  into  the  justification  of  an  offense. 

With  the  coming  of  Christ  this  old  law  was  contradicted. 
He  gave  a  new  rule,  which  was  quite  the  opposite  of  the  old 
law,  by  declaring  that  no  sinner  had  any  right  to  pass  judg- 
ment on  another.  He  insisted  that  sin  did  not  begin  in  the 
hand,  which  committed  the  visible  act,  but  in  the  heart.  He 
placed  the  emphasis  not  on  the  justice  of  revenge  but  on  the 
improvement  and  reclamation  of  the  criminal.  This  is  the 
root  of  our  modern  "Besserungstheorie,"  or  theory  of  better- 
ment. The  old  Hebrew  theory  of  punishment  was  based  on 
natural  impulse,  the  theory  advanced  by  Christ  on  reason. 
The  evidence  goes  to  show  that  the  early  church  honestly 
attempted  to  apply  Christ's  theory  of  punishment  until  the 
number  of  unmarried  mothers,  because  of  the  encouragement 
of  celibacy,  became  so  numerous  that  something  had  to  be 
done.  The  church  started  out  to  make  of  marriage  an  insti- 
tution quite  contrary  to  nature,  and  naturally  lost  its  fight 
to  eliminate  the  unmarried  mother  from  the  sex  problem. 
The  law  givers  of  the  church  instituted  a  new  theory  of  pun- 
ishment, the  "Abschreckungstheorie."  This  theory  involved 
the  principle  that  the  larger  the  number  of  criminals  of  a  cer- 
tain kind  the  more  severe  the  punishment  should  be.  The 
severity  of  punishment  was  not  graded  according  to  the  grav- 
ity of  the  crime,  but  according  to  its  frequency.  No  attempt 
was  made  to  examine  into  its  justification.  This  theory  was  a 
greater  injustice  to  criminals  than  the  theory  of  revenge,  for 
in  its  application  there  was  room  for  the  most  outrageous 
arbitrariness. 

Because  of  all  crimes  her  crime  could  be  most  easily  de- 
tected, the  unmarried  mother  suffered  most  under  this  new 
theory  of  punishment.  Man  could  very  easily  conform  to  the 
rules  of  the  church,  first  because  his  sexual  transgression  could 
not  be  detected,  and  then  because  he  could  resort  to  perjury 
to  evade  the  law.  But  the  woman  could  not  do  this.  In  due 
time  her  relation  would  be  revealed  to  the  whole  world,  there 
would  be  a  living  witness  to  rise  up  against  her  in  the  day  of 
judgment.  Because  the  woman  usually  revealed  that  there 


25 

had  been  sex  union,  while  the  man  could  not  be  found  out,  all 
primitive  peoples  asserted  that  woman  and  not  man  was  the 
transgressor  and  one  of  the  foremost  civilized  nations  of 
Europe  until  very  recently  acted  on  the  Napoleonic  edict:  "la 
recherche  de  la  paternite  est  interdite."  All  religious  teachers 
of  old  agreed  with:  Augustine  that  woman  was  the  "gate  of  the 
devil."  The  church  sincerely  believed  that  it  had  finally  lo- 
cated the  root  of  the  whole  sex  problem ;  it  was  the  unmarried 
mother.  The  whole  punishment  of  sex  union  fell  on  her.  If 
the  man  could  be  found  out,  he  too  would  suffer,  but  his  crime 
was  not  at  all  comparable  to  hers.  But  the  greatest  injustice 
was  inflicted  on  the  illegitimate  children.  At  the  synod  held  in 
England  787-788,  for  instance,  the  right  of  inheritance  of 
property  was  withdrawn  from  illegitimate  children.36  This 
was  followed  shortly  by  a  refusal  of  state  and  church  to 
accept  them  into  citizenship  or  communion. 
7  Then  the  large  number  of  unmarried  mothers,  which  steadily 
increased  as  the  church  victoriously  marched  forward  in  its 
establishment  of  celibacy,  tried  to  conform  to  the  require- 
ment of  the  church  by  concealing  pregnancy,  and  child-birth, 
and  then  by  killing  their  children  secretly.  This  was  the 
beginning  of  illegitimate  infanticide.  While  the  church  was 
trying  to  stamp  out  concubinage  and  legal  infanticide,  it  made 
possible  a  terrifying  number  of  unmarried  mothers,  forced 
them  to  conceal  their  condition  and  to  kill  their  illegitimate 
offspring,  and  then  began  to  punish  them  more  severely  than 
any  other  criminal.  I  know  of  no  more  terrible  page  in  history 
than  the  attempt  of  the  church  through  canon  and  civil  law 
to  define  marriage  and  to  stamp  out  a  delict  which  it  made 
possible  by  this  definition.  Our  modern  problem  of  ille- 
gitimacy goes  back  to  this  very  great  mistake  of  our  venerated 
church  fathers,  and  the  sooner  we  members  of  that  same  church 
to  which  they  belonged  admit  their  mistake  and  actively 
attempt  to  correct  it,  the  sooner  shall  we  bring  back  that 
church  to  a  place  where  it  will  truly  deserve  the  name  of 
Christ.  The  activity  of  the  modern  church  in  this  direction 
redounds  to  its  credit. 

18  Freisen,  loc.  cit.,  p.  687. 


26 

The  usual  punishments  for  infanticide  during  the  Middle 
Ages  and  even  into  the  eighteenth  century  were:  sacking 
(Sacken) ,  an  infanticide  being  sewed  up  in  a  sack  and  thrown 
into  the  water;  burying  alive  (Lebendigbegraben) ;  empaling 
(Pfahlen),  a  pointed  stick  being  driven  through  the  heart; 
and  burning  alive  (Feuertod).37 

Scherr  asserts  that  "in  Frankfurt  on  the  Main  the  first 
case  of  infanticide  reported  to  the  authorities  was  in  1444. 
The  decree  of  the  courts  was  that  the  girl  should  suffer  death 
by  drowning,  but  because  of  the  ardent  intercession  of  the 
women  of  the  city  she  was  pardoned.  In  Niirnberg  during  the 
fifteenth  century  not  one  case  was  reported  to  the  authorities, 
in  the  sixteenth,  six,  in  the  seventeenth,  thirty-six."38  Pes- 
check  reported  that  in  Lusatia  the  usual  punishment  was 
sacking  or  burying  alive  if  the  girl  had  murdered  her  child, 
and  humiliating  public  church  penance  if  she  had  not.  "In 
Zittau,"  he  writes,  "there  was  not  far  from  the  gallows  a  so- 
called  sacking  pond  (Sacklache).  The  infanticide  was  stuffed 
into  a  black  sack  together  with  a  dog,  a  cat,  a  rooster  or  a 
viper.  The  sack  had  to  remain  under  water  for  six  hours  and 
the  choir  boys  sang :  Aus  tiefer  Noth  schrei  ich  zu  Dir.  Then 
the  deceased  was  interred.  Burying  alive  of  infanticides  oc- 
curred frequently  in  Zittau  in  the  sixteenth  century.  ...  A 
number  of  times  a  pale  was  also  driven  through  the  heart  of  the 
girl  after  she  had  been  buried  alive. ' >39  Other  examples  are  to  be 
found  in  the  archives  of  Zurich.  Here  it  is  told  how  infanticides 
were  bound  hand  and  foot  and  thrown  into  the  Limmat  near 
a  fisherman's  hut,  which  with  its  encircling  hedge  stood  on  an 
island  in  the  middle  of  the  stream.  This  custom  endured 
until  1785.  In  1511  this  punishment  was  inflicted  on  a  girl 
who  for  the  third  time  had  corseted  so  tightly  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  her  illegitimate  child  to  be  born  alive.  In  1424  an 
infanticide  was  buried  alive  with  a  bed  of  thorns  over  and 
under  her.  The  hands  of  another  girl,  who  in  her  despair 

87  See    Julius    Wehrli,    "Der    Kindsmord;    dogma tisch-kritische    Studie." 
Frauenfeld,  1889,  p.  15. 

88  Johannes   Scherr,    "Deutsche  Kultur-  und  Sittengeschichte."     Leipzig, 
1873,  P-  194- 

39  Cf.  Anzeiger  fur  Kunde  der  deutschen  Vorzeit,  1854,  p.  114. 


27 

buried  her  babe  alive,  were  bound  together,  and  slipped  over 
her  knees,  then  a  pale  was  thrust  between  the  arms  and  thighs, 
and  she  was  thrown  into  the  water  and  held  there  until  death 
came.40  Many  unmarried  mothers  after  succeeding  in  their 
concealment  of  pregnancy  and  child-birth  felt  the  maternal 
instinct  too  strongly  to  kill  the  fruit  of  their  forbidden  love. 
Instead  they  placed  their  children  before  the  doors  of  the  city 
council  houses.  Weinhold  reports  that  "in  Basel  such  ex- 
posure of  children  reached  such  proportions  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century  that  a  decree  of  the  city  council 
threatened  that  every  woman  who  in  the  future  should  thus 
expose  her  child,  if  it  were  found  out,  would  be  thrown  into 
the  Rhine."41 

Simple  decapitation  was  considered  a  merciful  punishment. 
In  an  archive  of  Bischofszell,  canton  Thurgau,  it  is  stated 
that  an  infanticide  had  been  condemned  to  die  on  a  "bed  of 
thorns."  The  upper  bailiff  however  in  the  name  of  the  bishop 
tempered  the  punishment  and  substituted  simple  decapita- 
tion.42 These  examples  could  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  In 
the  archives  of  all  the  imperial  cities  of  Europe  there  is  re- 
corded the  story  of  these  hapless  unmarried  mothers.43 

These  cruel  forms  of  punishment  by  the  civil  courts,  and  it 
is  well  to  remember  that  these  courts  were  dominated  abso- 
lutely by  the  church,  were  paralleled  by  the  most  humiliating 
public  church  penance  for  the  unmarried  mother  who  did  not 
kill  her  child.  Laukhard  in  true  Storm  and  Stress  fashion 
gives  us  a  vivid  picture  of  this  punishment  which  so  often 
drove  girls  to  infanticide.  "Those  who  had  made  an  un- 
privileged, i.  e.,  an  illegitimate,  contribution  to  the  increase 

.  40  These  cases  were  reported  by  von  Meyer  von  Knonau  in  the  Anzeiger  filr 
Kunde  der  deutschen  Vorzeit,  1855,  p.  175. 

"See  Karl  Weinhold,  "Deutsche  Frauen  im  Mittelalter."  Wien,  1882,  I, 
P-  95- 

42  See  Wehrli,  "Der  Kindsmord;  etc.,"  p.  139. 

43  See  for  instance  Zeitschrift  fur  deutsche  Kulturgeschichte,  Niirnberg,  1859, 
IV,  p.  774f.:  "Zur  Kriminalstatistik  der  beiden  Stadte  Zeiz  und  Naumburg 
wahrend  der  Jahre  1549-1664."     Here  is  a  record  of  four  cases  of  infanticide  in 
Zeiz,  three  of  the  girls  were  drowned,  the  fourth  died  before  the  execution  and 
was  therefore  buried  under  the  gallows.     In  Naumburg  there  were  three  cases 
during  this  time.     One  was  decapitated,  another  was  drowned,  the  third  waa 
whipped  only,  because  she  had  notified  the  authorities  of  her  condition. 


28 

of  the  population  were  compelled  to  submit  to  public  church 
penance  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  congregation.  During 
this  outrageous  exhibition  (hildebrandischer  Unfug)  songs 
of  penance  were  sung  in  hurdy-gurdy  fashion,  then  a  typi- 
cally narrow  sermon  was  thundered  forth  on  this  vice  of 
fornication,  which  had  been  arbitrarily  called  so.  In  the 
sermon  all  the  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  in  which  this 
awful  sin  was  disgustingly  depicted  were  recited  with  clock- 
like  regularity  and  accompanied  by  a  drastic  monkish 
exegesis.  Then  the  penitent  had  to  confess  before  the  whole 
congregation — that  which  everyone  already  knew — that  she 
was  a  harlot  and  he  a  fornicator;  thereafter  she  was  absolved 
from  her  sinful  guilt  and  permitted  to  partake  of  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  Lord's  Supper.  .  .  .  Experience  has  proved  that 
just  this  church  penance  gave  occasion  for  secret  sins,  attempts 
at  abortion,  infanticide,  public  contempt  and  poor  education 
of  natural  or  illegitimate  children,  emigration,  yes,  at  times  for 
suicide  or  dangerous  illness,  which  resulted  from  melancholy 
and  anxiety."44 

From  a  written  petition  to  Duke  Karl  August  drawn  up  by 
Goethe  we  learn  that  the  unmarried  mother  who  was  auto- 
matically excommunicated  from  the  church,  could  again  be- 
come a  member  by  undergoing  the  excruciating  church  pen- 
ance. Undoubtedly  many  a  poor  girl  yielded  to  this  require- 
ment because  she  believed,  as  she  had  been  taught,  that  only 
those  who  were  in  the  fold  of  the  church  could  reach  heaven, 
while  many  another  attempted  to  remain  chaste  in  the  eyes  of 
the  church  by  concealing  her  condition  and  then  killing  her 
child. 

From  all  that  we  have  said  on  the  punishment  of  the  un- 
married mother  it  is  easy  to  see  that  it  was  not  uniform  in  the 
Middle  Ages  and  the  succeeding  centuries.  This  was  so  be- 
cause there  was  no  uniform  criminal  law  in  Germany  nor  in 
Europe  at  this  time.  Crimes  were  punished  differently  by 
each  city  or  town,  the  only  element  of  uniformity  being  the 
application  of  the  same  theory  of  punishment,  the  "Ab- 

44  "Der  Wild  und  Rheingraf  Carl  Magnus  vom  Magister  Laukhard."  Her- 
ausgegeben  von  Viktor  Petersen,  Stuttgart,  1911,  p.  62ff. 


29 

schreckungstheorie."  With  a  view  to  establishing  uniformity 
Emperor  Charles  V  and  his  advisors  in  1532  published  a  code 
of  criminal  law  known  as  "die  peinliche  Gerichtsordnung 
Karls  V"  (P.  G.  O.),  the  Constitutio  Criminalis  Carolina 
(C.C.C.),  or  in  short  the  Carolina.  This  code  met  with  the 
approval  of  the  imperial  estates  at  the  diet  of  Regensburg  in 
1532.  Articles  35,  36  and  131  are  concerned  with  the  dis- 
covery and  punishment  of  infanticide.  The  first  two  articles 
made  it  possible  to  convict  at  will  practically  every  unmarried 
woman  of  infanticide  provided  there  was  a  sufficient  number 
of  people  who  were  willing  to  perjure  themselves,  for  the  law 
was  very  willing  to  convict  and  execute.  Article  131  decrees 
that  infanticides  are  regularly  to  be  buried  alive  or  empaled. 
In  order  to  prevent  desperation,  however,  they  shall  be 
drowned  if  it  is  possible  to  get  to  a  stream  or  river,  in  which 
case  they  shall  be  torn  with  glowing  tongs  beforehand.  Wher- 
ever the  delict  happens  often  the  authorities  shall  regularly 
decree  burying  alive  or  empalement.45 

46  Since  the  revolt  against  antiquated  laws  in  the  period  of  Storm  and  Stress 
goes  back  to  this  code,  it  seems  advisable  to  give  the  articles  pertaining  to  in- 
fanticide in  full.  Art.  35:  Item  so  man  eyn  dirn  so  fur  eyn  jungfraw  geht, 
imm  argkwon  hat,  dass  sie  heymlich  eyn  kindt  gehabt,  vnnd  ertodt  habe,  soil 
man  sonderlich  erkunden,  ob  sie  mit  einem  grossen  vngewonlichen  leib  gesehen 
worden  sei,  Mer,  ob  jr  der  leib  kleyner  worden,  vnd  darnach  bleych  vnnd  schwach 
gewest  sei.  So  solchs  vnd  dergleichen  erfunden  wirdet,  wo  dann  die  selbig 
dirnn  eyn  person  ist,  darzu  man  sich  der  verdachten  thatt  versehen  mag,  Soil 
sie  durch  verstendig  frawen  an  heymlichen  stetten,  als  zu  weither  erfarung 
dienstlich  ist,  besichtigt  werden,  wiird  sie  dann  daselbst  auch  argkwonig  erfun- 
den, vnnd  will  der  thatt  dannocht  nit  bekennen,  mag  man  sie  peinlich  fragen. 
Art.  36:  Item  wo  aber  das  kindtlein,  so  kiirtzlich  ertodt  worden  ist,  dass  der 
mutter  die  milch  inn  den  priisten  noch  nit  vergangen,  die  mag  an  jren  priisten 
gemolcken  werden,  welcher  dann  inn  den  priisten  recht  vollkommene  milch 
funden  wirdet,  die  hat  desshalb  eyn  starck  vermutung  peinlicher  frag  halber 
wider  sich.  Nach  dem  aber  etliche  leibartzt  sagen,  dass  auss  etlichen  nattir- 
lichen  vrsachen  etwann  eyne,  die  keyn  kindt  getragen,  milch  in  priisten  haben 
moge,  darumb  so  sich  eyn  dirnn  inn  disen  fellen  also  entschuldigt,  so  soil  dess- 
halb durch  die  hebammen  oder  sunst  weither  erfarung  geschehen.  Art.  131: 
Item  welches  weib  jre  kind,  das  leben  vnd  glidmass  empfangen  hett,  heymlicher 
bosshafftiger  williger  weiss  ertb'dtet,  die  werden  gewonlich  lebendig  begraben 
vnnd  gepfelt,  Aber  darinnen  verzweiffelung  zuuerhiitten,  mogen  dieselben 
iibelthatterin  inn  welchem  gericht  die  bequemlicheyt  des  wassers  darzu  vor- 
handen  ist,  ertrenckt  werden,  Wo  aber  solche  iibel  off  t  geschehe,  wollen  wir  die 
gemelten  gewonheyt  des  vergrabens  vnnd  pfelens,  vmb  mer  forcht  willen,  solcher 
bosshafftigen  weiber  auch  zulassen,  oder  aber  das  vor  dem  erdrencken  die 


30 

/ 

The  most  important  characteristic  of  these  decrees  is  a 
sentence  in  Art.  131  which  made  the  concealment  of  preg- 
nancy, child-birth  and  then  infanticide  equally  punishable. 
To  punish  girls  who  had  been  forced  to  kill  their  children  was 
bad  enough,  but  to  inflict  the  same  severe  punishment  for  the 
concealment  of  pregnancy  gave  judges  who  already  were 
arbitrary  enough  an  opportunity  to  enter  on  a  veritable 
"reign  of  terror."  Benedict  Carpzov  (1595-1666),  who 
credited  himself  with  having  read  the  Bible  fifty-three  times, 
assisted  in  executing  not  less  than  twenty  thousand  women, 
most  of  them  charged  with  witchcraft,  a  large  number  with 
infanticide.  It  was  he  who  exceeded  the  decree  of  the  Caro- 
lina by  ordering  that  the  infanticide  should  be  drowned  with 
three  animals,  a  cat,  a  dog,  a  monkey  or  a  viper,  and  that  she 
should  sew  up  her  own  sack  of  linen  or  leather.  This  manner 
of  punishment  was  common  in  Saxony  until  1734  and  in 
Prussia  until  the  time  of  Frederick  the  Great.46  Pescheck 
asserted  that  it  was  inflicted  for  the  last  time  in  Zittau  in  1749, 
but  not  officially  abolished  until  1761. 

That  Carpzov's  influence  was  very  great  is  best  evidenced 
by  a  vehement  philippic  which  may  be  found  in  Moritz  August 
von  Thummers  "Die  Reise  in  die  mittaglichen  Provinzen 
von  Frankreich."47  We  read:  " His  (Carpzov's)  criminal  erudi- 

tibelthatterin  mit  gliienden  zangen  gerissen  werde,  alles  nach  radt  der  recht- 
uerstendigen.  .  .  .  Doch  so  eyn  weibssbild  eyn  lebendig  glitmessig  kindtlein 
also  heymlich  tregt,  auch  mit  willen  alleyn,  vnnd  on  hilff  anderer  weiber  gebiirt, 
welche  on  hilffiiche  geburt,  mit  todtlicher  verdechtlicheyt  geschehen  muss. 
So  ist  desshalb  keyn  glaublichere  vrsach,  dann  dass  die  selbig  mutter  durch 
bosshafftigen  fiirsatz  vermeynt,  mit  todtung  des  vnschuldigen  kindtleins  daran 
sie  vor  inn  oder  nach  der  geburt  schuldig  wirt,  jre  geiibte  leichtvertigkeyt  ver- 
borgen  zuhalten.  Darumb  wann  eyn  solche  morderin  auff  gedachter  jrer 
angemasten  vnbeweisten  frevenlichen  entschuldigung  bestehn  bleiben  wolt,  so 
soil  man  sie  auff  obgemelte  gnugsame  antzeygung  bestimpts  vnchristlichen 
vnnd  vnmenschlichen  erfunden  iibels  vnd  mordts  halber,  mit  peinlicher 
ernstlicher  frag  zu  bekanntnuss  der  wahrheyt  zwingen,  Auch  auff  bekenntnuss 
des  selben  mordts  zu  entlicher  todtstraff,  als  obsteht  vrtheylen.  Doch  wo 
eyns  solchen  weibs  schuld  oder  vnschuld  halb  gezweiffelt  wiird,  so  sollen  die 
Richter  vnd  vrtheyler  mit  antzeygung  aller  umbstende  bei  den  rechtverstendigen 
oder  sunst  wie  hernach  gemelt  wirdet,  radts  pflegen.  The  decrees  are  in  Hein- 
rich  Zoepfl,  "Die  P.  G.  O.  Kaiser  Karl's  V.  usw."  Heidelberg,  1842. 

46  Cf.  Grimm,  "Rechtsalterthtimer,"  II,  279. 

47  See  A.  M.  v.  Thiimmels  sammtliche  Werke.     Leipzig,  1839,  II,  25off. 


31 

tion  super-abounded  in  thick  volumes  behind  grated  book-cases 
of  our  law  room,  and  every  weak  head  which  came  too  near 
was  benumbed  by  the  poisonous  exhalation  from  their  pages. 
This  Moloch  of  his  time  .  .  .  even  after  his  death  exerted  his 
baneful  influence  through  his  disciples,  who  in  their  blindness 
of  spirit  and  in  their  intellectual  conceit  followed  in  his 
footsteps.  The  justices  instead  of  thinking  for  themselves 
found  it  more  convenient  to  refer  to  him  who  had  already  con- 
sidered all  this  that  they  should  have  reconsidered.  The 
digests  were  simply  interlarded  with  his  arbitrary  sentences 
(Machtspriiche)  and  every  attorney,  every  judge  obediently 
bowed  his  head  before  this  despot.  It  would  have  been  neces- 
sary for  me  to  be  a  Hercules  to  kill  this  many-headed  monster 
with  one  blow." 

-  As  long  as  there  were  such  men  at  the  head  of  state  and 
church  it  was  no  wonder  that  the  cruel  forms  of  punishment 
which  had  been  in  use  before  the  Carolina  was  published  should 
continue  afterward.  Spielmann  corroborates  the  fact  that 
drowning  was  still  the  most  common  form  of  punishment  of 
infanticides  in  I55O.48  There  is  also  evidence  that  they  con- 
tinued to  bury  girls  alive.  In  Dietmarschen,  as  late  as  the 
seventeenth  century,  fallen  girls  were  placed  under  the  ice  to 
meet  with  a  miserable  death.49  An  old  decree  of  these  same 
people,  which  was  confirmed  by  Frederick  II,  King  of  the  Danes 
in  1567,  read:  "Whoever  kills  her  own  child  shall  be  buried 
alive  under  the  gallows."50  A  broadside  of  1610  tells  of  an 
infanticide  at  Brittalen,  in  the  land  of  the  Lithuanians,  who 
placed  the  blame  for  the  death  of  her  child  on  way-faring 
traders.  Later  she  was  led  to  the  dead  child  and 

Man  zeigte  jhr  das  todte  Kind — 
Bald  auss  jhr  Nasen  roht  Blut  rinnt. 
Ohn  Pein  bekandte  eben 
Wie  sie  dieses,  sechse  darzu, 
Schandtlich  hab  bracht  umbs  Leben. 

«  In  Nassovia,  IX,  1908,  p.  146.  Cf .  also  Abegg  in  Zeitschrift  fur  deutschc* 
Recht,  XVIII,  423. 

49  Weinhold,  "  Altnordisches  Leben,"  p.  255. 

10  Johannes  Paulli  Kressius,  "  Commentatio  succincta  in  constitutionem 
crhninalem  Caroli  V,  etc."  Hannover,  1736,  p.  419. 


32 

Also  hat  sie  jhr  Urtheil  schwer 
Aussgstanden  selbs  nach  anderen  begehr, 
Lebendig  ward  vergraben 
Ein  Bund  Dorn  under  sie  ist  gelegt 
Ein  Rohr  ins  Maul  gegeben.61 

The  most  terrible  of  punishments,  empalement,  the  inflic- 
tion of  which  is  referred  to  in  the  last  line  above,  was  practi- 
cally forbidden  by  the  Carolina.  Another  example  to  prove 
that  this  prohibition  was  not  effective  is  that  of  an  infanticide 
in  Zittau,  who  was  executed  in  1573.  Because  empalement 
was  resorted  to,  the  authorities  abolished  the  supreme  court, 
which  was  later  reinstated,  however,  by  the  payment  of  a  sum 
of  money.52  Grimm  tells  of  another  city  which  in  1554 
decreed  that  those  "who  have  had  children  and  have  killed 
them,  shall  be  placed  alive  in  a  pit,  a  pile  of  thorns  shall  be 
placed  on  the  body,  both  shall  be  covered  with  earth,  and  an 
oaken  pale  shall  be  driven  through  the  heart."53  As  late  as 
1714  a  decree  of  empalement  was  sent  to  Prague. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  simple  de- 
capitation became  the  normal  punishment,  although  it  was 
usually  accompanied  by  "tearing  with  glowing  tongs."  Such 
punishment  was  looked  upon  as  merciful. 

In  looking  through  the  archives  one  seldom  finds  a  case 
where  the  seducer  is  mentioned.  When  he  was  found  out 
he  was  punished  severely.54  The  reason  he  was  so  seldom 
punished  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  courts  always 
accepted  the  man's  denial  in  preference  to  the  woman's  accu- 
sation. It  was  a  war  against  the  unmarried  mother  and  not 
against  the  unmarried  father. 

The  application  of  the  "  Abschreckungstheorie  "  was  a  com- 
plete failure.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
J.  S.  F.  Bohmer  (1704-1772)  asserted  that  infanticide  was 
mentioned  because  it  was  the  most  common  of  crimes.  Still 

61  This  is  usually  referred  to  as  "das  Motif  von  der  Litthauischen  Kindeg- 
morderin."  See  Alemannia,  Bonn,  1890,  XVIII,  52.  Cf.  comments  by  J. 
Elias  in  Jahresberichtefur  neuere  deutsche  Litter aturgeschichte,  I,  III,  31. 

12  See  Anzeigerfur  Kunde  der  deutschen  Vorzeit,  1854, 114. 

61  See  Grimm,  "Rechtsalterthiimer,"  II,  271. 

84  Idem,  II,  269,  271,  275. 


33 


better  evidence  is  an  edict  by  Frederick  William  I,  King  of 
Prussia,  the  predecessor  of  Frederick  the  Great.  The  edict 
was  issued  August  30,  1720,  almost  two  hundred  years  after 
the  publication  of  the  Carolina.  It  was  entitled:  "General 
Edict  against  infanticide,  in  which  the  punishment  of  sacking 
is  ordered."55  The  first  paragraph  refers  to  the  current  cus- 
tom of  decreeing  simple  decapitation  instead  of  sacking. 
The  second  paragraph  reads  in  part:  "Since,  we  are  sorry  to 
say,  experience  proves  that  this  crime  is  becoming  all  too 
common,  and  many  children  born  out  of  marriage  are  killed 
at  birth  by  their  wicked  mothers,  and  since  the  blood  of  these 
children  cries  for  revenge,  we  should  attempt  to  frighten  these 
dissolute  minds."  In  a  later  paragraph  the  king  decrees  that 
all  girls  who  have  given  birth  to  an  illegitimate  child  shall, 
according  to  the  circumstances,  be  scourged  and  then  exiled 
from  home  and  country,  even  if  no  murder  has  taken  place. 
For  the  unmarried  mothers,  however,  who  had  killed  their 
children,  he  decreed  that  on  conviction  the  punishment  of 
sacking  should  invariably  be  ordered,  leaving  it  to  the  review- 
ing tribunal  to  determine  if  leniency  should  be  exercised, 
"which  we,  because  of  the  frequency  of  this  horrible  evil,  are 
not  minded  to  do."  The  edict  was  to  be  published  in  the 
usual  manner,  to  be  posted  in  all  public  places  and  read  in  all 
the  churches  of  the  kingdom  on  each  first  day  of  penance. 

Three  years  later,  November  22,  1723,  there  was  published 
a  "renovirtes  und  gescharftes"  edict.  The  king  complains 
that  the  former  edict  did  not  produce  the  results  which  he 
expected  and  "  this  vice  so  contrary  to  nature  and  in  every  way 
so  horrible  still  continues  to  increase."  He  urges  the  author- 
ities to  increase  their  zeal  in  trying  to  find  out  girls  who  are 
about  to  become  unmarried  mothers,  for  "concealment  of 
pregnancy  is  a  certain  sign  of  intentional  murder  and  only  by 
finding  it  out  can  this  crime  be  prevented." 

The  popular  attitude  toward  the  unmarried  mother  and  the 
causes  which  led  her  to  kill  her  child  had  not  greatly  changed 
from  the  Middle  Ages  to  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 

65  The  decrees  of  King  Frederick  William  I.  are  available  in  Mylius, "  Corpus 
Constitutionum  Marchicarum,  etc." 


34 

century.  If  Frederick  William  I  had  been  a  student  of  history 
he  would  have  known  that  it  was  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
especially  the  presence  of  the  thousands  of  unmarried  soldiers, 
which  had  so  greatly  increased  the  number  of  unmarried 
mothers  and  of  infanticides.  There  developed  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eighteenth  century  a  movement  which  had  as  its 
goal  the  discovery  of  the  causes  of  infanticide  as  well  as  of 
crime  in  general.  The  jurist  Leyser  for  the  first  time  dis- 
tinguished two  kinds  of  infanticide:  first,  that  committed  by 
girls  who  had  been  innocently  seduced;  second,  that  committed 
by  girls  who  practiced  prostitution.  He  also  suggested  that 
the  first  class  be  punished  by  simple  decapitation,  because 
"most  girls  who  commit  the  crime  do  so  to  save  their  lives 
and  because  of  fear  of  shame."  For  those  who  kill  their 
children  because  these  would  be  a  hindrance  to  the  contin- 
uation of  their  life  of  vice,  he  favored  the  retention  of  the 
"poena  culei,"  that  is,  drowning  in  a  sack  accompanied  by 
animals. 

Then  Christian  Thomasius,  a  professor  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Leipzig,  asserted  that  "legal  science  should  be 
grounded  rather  on  man's  moral  nature  than  on  biblical 
tradition."  The  theologians  of  course  would  not  stand  for 
that  and  so  proceeded  to  make  it  too  hot  for  him.  He  then 
went  to  the  University  of  Halle.  But  two  heads  took  the 
place  of  the  one  that  had  been  eliminated.  Wolff  and  Leib- 
nitz set  up  the  rule  that  "everything  is  right  and  permissible 
which  seems  necessary  for  the  attainment  of  public  tran- 
quility  and  safety."66 

Frederick  the  Great  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  these  men. 
He  put  into  practice  two  important  preachments  of  his. 
The  first  was  expressed  in  a  letter  to  Voltaire:  "I  believed 
.  .  .  that  it  would  be  better  to  seek  out  causes  and  prevent 
crimes  than  to  punish  them."57  And  the  second  was  expressed 

18  For  the  quotation  from  Leyser  see  Wehrli,  "  Der|Kindsmord,  etc.,"  p.  38; 
from  Thomasius  see  Calvin  Thomas,  "A  History  of  German  Literature."  New 
York,  1909,  p.  2O2f.;  for  a  discussion  of  the  theories  of  Wolff  and  Leibnitz  see 
Ferdinand  Willensbiicher,  "Die  strafrechtsphilosophischen  Anschauungen 
Friedrichs  des  Grossen."  Breslau,  1904,  p.  63. 

17  See  Willensblicher,  loc.  cit.t  p.  17. 


35 

in  an  essay:  "Natural  equity  demands  that  there  should  be 
proportion  between  the  crime  and  its  punishment."58  These 
two  principles  were  the  origin  of  a  new  theory  of  punishment, 
the  prophylactic.  This  involved  the  principle  that  by  pro- 
phylactic activity  the  causes  of  crimes  could  be  discovered 
and  the  crimes  themselves  prevented. 

Accordingly  Frederick  the  Great  and  his  contemporaries 
opened  attack  on  three  evils  which  were  causes  of  infanticide : 
indefiniteness  of  the  law,  cruelty  of  punishment,  especially 
in  the  execution  of  it,  and  arbitrariness  of  judges.  In  the 
year  of  his  coronation  Frederick  decreed  that  the  punishment 
of  sacking,  which  his  father  had  only  recently  reinstated,  should 
be  abolished.  All  infanticides  should  thereafter  be  punished 
by  decapitation.59  To  avoid  all  judicial  arbitrariness  he 
decreed  that  all  criminal  findings  should  be  sent  directly  to 
him.  When  on  June  26,  1743,  his  advisers  urged  that  this 
revision  would  require  too  much  of  his  time  he  answered  in 
very  emphatic  German:  "No!  All  criminal  decrees  shall  be 
sent  to  me,  otherwise  all  kinds  of  abuses  will  come  into  exist- 
ence and  the  people  in  the  provinces  can  be  hoodwinked  at 
pleasure."60  On  June  20,  1746,  Frederick  abolished  church 
penance  in  all  the  churches  of  his  kingdom,  "because  the 
punishment  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh  and  the  consequent  dis- 
grace give  occasion  for  infanticide,  .  .  .  and  because  it 
serves  rather  to  increase  resentment  and  bitterness  than  to 
produce  betterment."60 

In  his  "Dissertation  sur  les  raisons  d'e"tablir  ou  d'abroger  ~4J 
les  lois"  he  again  devotes  much  space  to  a  discussion  of  the 
evil  of  infanticide.  "  Is  there  any  ultimate  good  in  the  manner 
in  which  we  punish  infanticides?,"  he  asks  after  reviewing  the 
practice  among  primitive  peoples.  "Heaven  knows  that  I 
do  not  for  a  moment  excuse  this  horrible  act  of  these  Medeas 
who,  cruel  to  themselves  and  to  the  voice  of  blood,  kill  the 
future  race.  But  I  would  that  the  reader  might  weigh  all 
the  prejudices  of  custom  and  deign  to  give  some  attention  to 

11  Idem,  p.  19. 

"  The  decree  was  dated  July  31,  1740.  It  is  available  in  Mylius:  "Corpui 
Constitutionem  Marchicarum,  etc." 

10  See  J.  D.  E.  Preuss,  "Friedrich  der  Grosse."     Berlin,  1832,  I,  337. 


36 

the  reflections  that  I  am  going  to  present.  The  laws,  do  they 
not  attach  infamy  to  clandestine  child-birth?  A  girl  only  too 
easily  fooled  by  the  promises  of  a  seducer,  does  she  not  find 
herself  compelled  by  the  very  force  of  circumstances,  to  choose 
between  the  loss  of  her  honor  and  the  elimination  of  the  un- 
happy fruit  that  she  has  conceived?  Is  it  not  the  fault  of  the 
laws  to  place  a  girl  in  such  a  desperate  position?  And  does 
not  the  severity  of  the  judges  deprive  the  state  of  two  subjects, 
the  child  which  it  forces  the  mother  to  kill,  and  then  the  mother 
herself  in  expiation  of  her  crime,  a  mother  who  may  have  in- 
tended to  make  it  possible  to  repair  her  loss  by  becoming  a 
legal  mother  and  then  to  propagate  legally?  I  know  that 
they  save  an  innumerable  number  of  bastards  to  society, 
but  would  it  not  be  better  to  take  the  evil  by  the  roots  and 
save  all  of  these  poor  creatures  who  perish  miserably,  by 
abolishing  the  detriments  attached  to  the  results  of  an  im- 
prudent and  secret  love?"61 

And  then  there  are  two  edicts  devoted  entirely  to  an  attempt 
to  prevent  the  delict  by  actively  eliminating  the  causes. 
One  was  issued  August  17,  1756,  and  was  entitled  "Edikt  zur 
Verhiitung  des  Kindesmords,"  the  other  February  8,  1765, 
entitled  "Edikt  wider  den  Mord  neugebohrner  unehelicher 
Kinder,  Verheimlichung  der  Schwangerschaft,  und  Nieder- 
kunft."  In  both  decrees  the  intention  of  the  king  is  evident. 
He  tried  to  make  it  possible  for  every  unmarried  mother  to 
come  within  the  law,  his  concern  being  rather  to  save  both 
mother  and  child  than  to  lose  both  or  to  make  them  unde- 
sirable members  of  society.  It  is  particularly  interesting  to 
note  that  he  wanted  mother  and  child  to  remain  together. 
He  instructed  unmarried  mothers  to  report  their  condition  to 
any  married  mother,  who  in  turn  was  obliged  to  assist  her  in 
every  way  possible;  or,  if  she  preferred,  to  report  her  condition 
to  the  local  authorities,  who  should  provide  for  her.  If  she 
complied  with  this  requirement  no  punishment  whatever 
would  be  inflicted.  Parents  and  employers  of  girls  were  for- 
bidden to  flog  pregnant  unmarried  girls.  They  were  also 
forbidden  to  discharge  such  girls  without  providing  them  with 

61  Cf .  "  Oeuvres  de  Frederic  le  Grand."     IX,  sof . 


37 


means  for  their  sustenance  or  until  they  had  notified  the  local 
authorities.  The  seducer  of  the  girl  was  instructed  to  pro- 
vide and  care  for  her  whom  he  had  got  with  child,  provided 
she  notified  him  of  the  fact.  Parents  of  girls  who  were  about 
to  become  mothers  before  marriage  were  forbidden  to  treat 
their  children  harshly  under  heavy  penalty. 

Frederick  was  so  intent  on  eradicating  causes  that  he  even 
attacked  the  church  in  its  assertion  that  only  those  marriages 
which  it  sanctioned  were  legal.  When  it  was  reported  to  him 
that  a  certain  divine  refused  to  marry  a  couple  because  the 
man  wished  to  marry  his  father's  brother's  wife,  "because 
such  marriages  were  expressly  forbidden  in  the  Word  of  God," 
Frederick  instructed:  "If  they  (the  Divines)  do  not  want  to 
marry  him,  let  the  couple  go  to  the  council  house,  make  their 
contract  as  they  do  in  Holland,  and  I  shall  declare  their  chil- 
dren legal." 

While  Frederick  was  on  the  right  track  in  trying  to  seek  out 
the  causes  of  infanticide  and  to  eradicate  them,  he  failed  to- 
discover  one  very  important  cause — the  insistence  that  his 
soldiery  should  remain  unmarried.  In  the  last  years  of  his 
life  he  discovered  this  and  immediately  began  correcting  this 
evil  by  instituting  soldier  marriages  or  encouraging  ordinary 
marriage  among  his  soldiers,  but  this  came  so  late  in  his  life 
that  it  did  not  affect  the  fact  that  after  the  Seven  Years '  War 
he  could  assert  in  his  edict  of  1765  that  infanticide  had  be- 
come more  frequent  than  ever.  The  reason  was  to  be  found 
in  the  quartering  of  a  large  army  on  the  people  of  his  kingdom, 
an  army  of  men  who  were  required  to  remain  unmarried. 

Frederick's  activities  in  regard  to  this  problem  were  paral- 
leled by  those  of  Maria  Theresa,  empress  of  Austria,  together 
with  those  of  Joseph  II,  who  succeeded  her.  She  abolished 
torture  in  1775,  established  maternity  and  foundling  houses, 
and  later  abolished  capital  punishment.  So  too  Catherine 
II,  empress  of  Russia,  immediately  upon  her  coronation 
founded  poor  and  foundling  houses.  In  order  to  improve 
the  defective  legal  procedure  she  appointed  a  commission  to 
draw  up  a  new  code  of  laws.  Whole  passages  of  this  code  were 


38 

literally  copied  from  Beccaria,  the  eminent  Italian  criminolo- 
gist.  She  also  abolished  torture  and  capital  punishment. 

And  then  there  was  Beccaria  just  referred  to.  In  his 
famous  " Essay  on  Crimes  and  Punishment"62  he  asserted 
that  the  penalty  of  death  was  not  authorized  by  any  right, 
for  no  such  right  existed.  It  was  further  neither  necessary 
nor  useful.  Of  the  unmarried  mother  he  said:  "The  murder 
of  bastard  children  is  the  effect  of  a  cruel  dilemma,  in  which  a 
woman  finds  herself  when  she  has  been  seduced  through  weak- 
ness or  overcome  by  force.  The  alternative  is,  either  her  own 
infamy  or  the  death  of  a  being  who  is  incapable  of  feeling  the 
loss  of  life.  How  can  she  avoid  preferring  the  latter  to  the 
inevitable  misery  of  herself  and  her  unhappy  infant?  The 
best  method  of  preventing  this  crime,  would  be  effectively  to 
protect  the  weak  woman  from  that  tyranny  which  exaggerates 
all  vices  that  cannot  be  concealed  under  the  cloak  of  virtue. 
I  do  not  seek  to  lessen  that  just  abhorrence  which  these  crimes 
deserve,  but  to  discover  the  sources  from  whence  they  spring; 
and  I  think  I  may  draw  the  following  conclusion:  That  the 
punishment  of  a  crime  cannot  be  just  if  the  laws  have  not 
endeavored  to  prevent  that  crime  by  the  best  means  which 
times  and  circumstances  allow."  Voltaire  wrote  a  com- 
mentary for  the  translation.  It  was  headed:  "The  Occasion 
of  this  Commentary."  In  it  he  tells  how  with  infinite  satis- 
faction he  had  read  Beccaria's  book.  Then  he  continues: 
"I  flattered  myself  that  it  would  be  a  means  of  softening  the 
remnants  of  barbarism  in  the  laws  of  many  nations ;  I  hoped  for 
some  reformation  in  mankind,  when  I  was  informed  that, 
within  a  few  miles  of  my  abode,  they  had  just  hanged  a  girl  of 
eighteen,  beautiful,  well-formed,  accomplished,  and  of  a  very 
reputable  family."  He  then  proceeds  to  tell  the  history  of 
the  case,  and  of  the  trial  and  the  execution  of  this  girl,  who 
was  an  infanticide. 

In  the  activities  of  Frederick  the  Great,  of  Maria  Theresa, 
of  Catherine  II,  of  Beccaria,  Voltaire,  Montesquieu  and  their 

61  "Dei  Delitti  e  delle  Pene, "  1764.  Within  18  months,  six  editions  were 
sold.  Translated  into  French  by  Morellet  in  1766,  into  English  in  1768,  into 
German  in  1764. 


39 

adherents,  was  the  tinder  which  was  destined  to  kindle  the 
greatest  revolt  against  antiquated  laws  and  customs  that 
Europe  has  ever  experienced.  In  Germany  it  was  a  period 
of  Storm  and  Stress,  of  passionate  revolt  against  outworn 
conventions  in  art,  and  against  hoary  social  abuses  intrenched 
in  law  and  custom. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  HUMANITARIAN  REVOLT  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 

Led  by  Frederick  the  Great  and  his  contemporaries,  the 
exponents  of  the  Age  of  Enlightenment,  the  writers  of  the 
last  three  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century  turned  their  at- 
tention to  the  discovery  and  elimination  of  the  causes  of  un- 
married motherhood  and  consequent  infanticide  rather  than 
to  devising  means  of  punishing  it. 

Foremost  among  the  causes  of  so  much  illegitimacy  was  the 
amazing  prevalence  of  prostitution,  which  went  hand  in  hand 
with  a  constant  decrease  in  the. number  of  marriages  and  an 
increase  of  infanticide.  One  of  the  contestants  for  the  Mann- 
heim prize  suggested  that  the  question  should  read:  "not 
how  can  infanticide  be  prevented,  but  which  are  the  best 
means  to  stop  prostitution?"1  Lenz  in  his  essay  "Ueber  die 
Soldatenehen "  severely  scored  the  attempts  to  punish  ille- 
gitimate sexual  commerce,  for  that  would  only  result  in  "a 
concealment  of  sexual  irregularities  and  a  consequent  inability 
to  judge  its  dangerousness."  "These  destructive  habits," 
he  wrote,  "enervate  citizens  and  soldiers,  marriages  are 
becoming  rare,  and  our  progeny  is  miserably  poor."2  List  in 
his  contest  essay  asserted  that  "in  our  days  prostitution  is  the 
fashionable  vice,"  and  a  poem  in  the  Deutsches  Museum 
expresses  the  same  opinion.  Part  of  it  runs 

Ob  du  junger  Unschuld  Kranze  raubst, 
Dir  Betrug  und  Ehebruch  erlaubst, 
Ob  dich  heimlich  Neid  und  Hochmut  qualen, 
Das  entehrt  dich  Erstgebornen  nicht; 
Denn  die  Mode  duldet  schwarze  Seelen, 
Aber  keine  Flecken  im  Gesicht.3 

1  See  Allgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek,  85,  I56f. 

2  Jakob   Michael   Reinhold   Lenz,    "Ueber   die   Soldatenehen.     Nach   der 
Handschrift  der  Berliner  Koniglichen  Bibliothek  zum  ersten  Male  herausgegeben 
von  Karl  Freye."     Leipzig,  1914,  p.  22f. 

8 Deutsches  Museum,  1776*,  p.  6oiff.,  "Die  Mode,"  signed  Ue. 

40 


41 


Cella  in  a  discourse  "Von  Errichtung  offentlicher  Bordelle 
oder  Hurenwirtschaften  in  grossen  Stadten  und  auf  Universi- 
taten"  gives  an  excellent  picture  of  the  status  of  morals  at 
a  large  German  university  of  that  time.  "I  know  very  cer- 
tainly," he  says,  "and  anyone  who  will  investigate  will  bear  me 
out,  that  at  most  universities  at  the  beginning  of  each  half 
year,  when  new  students  arrive,  at  least  a  third  of  the  number 
is  in  the  care  of  physicians  and  army  surgeons,  to  be  cured  of 
their  fashionable  diseases  of  gallantry."4 

This  widespread  prevalence  of  illegitimacy  was  due  to 
many  causes.  Laziness  and  idleness  seem  to  have  been  rife 
among  all  classes.  The  inflated  prosperity  which  followed 
the  Seven  Years'  War  was  mostly  to  blame.  J.  G.  Schlosser 
insists  that  the  girls  were  "fickle,  voluptuous,  lazy,  prattling. 
They  are  surrounded  in  the  city  by  many  soldiers  and  officers 
who  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  drill  a  few  hours  each  day. 
Idleness  and  luxury  alone  are  the  sources  of  prostitution."5 
Iselin  records  the  offer  of  a  prize  for  the  best  essay  on  the 
question:  "What  are  the  most  practicable  and  efficacious 
means  to  improve  the  mind  and  heart  as  well  as  the  morals  of 
the  common  man  in  the  towns  and  country,  and  especially 
how  can  he  be  encouraged  and  accustomed  to  diligence  and 
industry  ?  " 6  Christian  Wilhelm  Kindleben  in  his  ' '  S tudenten  - 
lexicon"  defines  the  word  "arbeitsam":  "an  epithet  which 
was  formerly  applied  to  the  peasant,  if  one  wanted  to  flatter 
him.  .  .  .  Now  the  peasant  seems  to  be  ashamed  of  this 
name  and  at  public  meetings  and  elsewhere  insists  that  he  be 
called  '  lieber  Ehrengeachteter.'  O  temporal  O  mores!"7 

A  show  of  supposed  wealth  or  luxury  always  accompanies 
laziness.  It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  one  Mannheim  con- 
testant should  suggest  that  a  "diminution  of  luxury"  would 

4"Johann  Jakob  Cella's  freymtithige^Aufsatze."     Anspach,  1784,  p.  53f. 

5  Johann  Georg  Schlosser,   "Die  Wudbianer,  Eine  nicht  gekronte  Preiss- 
Schrift  iiber  die  Frage:  Wie  ist  der  Kindermord  zu  verhindern  ohne  die  Unzucht 
zu  befordern?"  Basel,  1785.     In  "Kleine  Schriften,"  IV,  p.  18. 

6  Isaak   Iselin,   in   IX  of  Ephemeriden  der  Menschheit  oder  Bibliothek  der 
Sittenlehre,  der  Politik  und  der  Gesetzgebung.     Basel,  1777,  p.  124. 

7  Halle,  1781.     No.  7  in  "Bibliothek  litterarischer  und  culturhistorischer 
Seltenheiten."     Leipzig,  1899,  p.  17. 


42 

eliminate  much  illegitimacy.8  Hamann  lamented:  UO  dead 
and  unproductive  prosperity,  sanctimonious  Pharisee  of  our 
century!"9  List  in  his  essay  exclaimed:  "O  accursed  luxury! 
the  most  beautiful  of  feminine  virtues  would  be  destroyed 
much  less  often  without  thee.  Monarchs!  ye  who  are  able 
to  eradicate  this  evil,  use  every  energy  to  root  out  this  curse." 
Lenz  in  his  "Zerbin"  attributes  the  almost  successful  con- 
cealment of  infanticide  by  Marie  to  the  pockets  which  girls 
of  the  lower  classes  wore  in  their  dresses,  thus  making  it  easy 
to  conceal  their  pregnant  condition.10  Hermes  therefore  rec- 
ommended a  very  plain  suit,  similar  to  that  worn  by  the  early 
Greeks,  which  should  take  the  place  of  women's  skirts  and 
bodices,  in  order  in  this  way  to  remove  everything  which 
might  conceal  the  physical  changes  of  the  body  and  make 
infanticide  an  impossibility  because  pregnancy  would  be 
detected  in  the  first  months  of  its  progress.11  Goethe  very 
well  knew  the  weakness  of  the  girls  of  his  time  when  he  made 
Faust  appeal  to  the  fancy  of  Gretchen  by  giving  her  a  casket 
of  jewels,  which  she  paraded  at  the  house  of  neighbor  Martha. 

Nach  Golde  drangt, 

Am  Golde  hangt 

Doch  alles.     Ach  wir  Armen' 

Then  there  was  an  unusual  emigration  from  country  to 
city,  and  that  always  increases  illegitimacy.  Country  girls, 
who  had  little  experience  with  the  ways  of  the  world,  became 
easy  victims  of  young  men  who  had  had  years  of  training  in 
seduction.  Pestalozzi  devotes  one  whole  section  of  his  essay 
to  a  discussion  of  the  circumstances  which  usually  brought 

8  See  Allgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek,  54,  in.     Cf.  also  Idem,  52,  478.     There 
are  also  many  cursory  discussions  of  the  evil  effects  of  luxury.     See  Johann 
Timotheus  Hermes,  "Sophiens  Reise  von  Memel  nach  Sachsen."     Leipzig, 
1776,  I,  620;  N.  E.  Tscharner,  "Ueber  die  Nothwendigkeit  der  Prachtgesetze 
in  einem  Freystaate,"  in  Berlinische  Monatsschrift,  1769. 

9  Hamanns  Schriften.     Berlin,  1823,  IV,  231. 

10  Jakob  Michael  Reinhold  Lenz,  "  Gesammelte  Schriften."     Herausgegeben 
von  Ludwig  Tieck.     Berlin,  1828,  III,  165. 

n  Cf .  Konstantin  Muskalla,  "Johann  Timotheus  Hermes,  Ein  Beitrag  zur 
Kultur-  und  Literaturgeschichte  des  achtzehnten  Jahrhunderts."  Breslau, 
1910,  p.  29.  Iselin  too  had  some  pertinent  things  to  suggest  on  the  manner  of 
dress,  cf .  "  Palamon  oder  von  der  Ueppigkeit."  Zurich,  1769,  p.  26. 


43 

about  the  large  number  of  infanticides  among  servant  girls, 
who  generally  came  from  the  country.  Among  the  causes 
enumerated  are  these :  The  wanton  attitude  of  their  superiors 
spoils  the  girls'  innocence.  City  food  and  drink  and  even 
city  work  intensify  the  sexual  instinct  of  country  girls.  Traps 
of  seduction  and  unfaithfulness  are  only  play  and  pastime  on 
the  part  of  city  men.  The  laws  seem  to  be  made  to  heap  on 
such  girls  all  the  blame  and  punishment  for  any  sexual  irregu- 
larity, the  disadvantage  of  these  girls  consisting  in  their  igno- 
rance of  the  crooked  high-ways  and  by-ways  of  legal  procedure, 
while  these  are  known  to  their  seducers.  Pestalozzi  con- 
cludes the  section  by  asserting  that  the  history  of  the  crime 
proved  that  most  infanticides  are  committed  by  servant  girls 
under  these  unfavorable  conditions.12 

Games  in  which  kissing  played  a  part  seem  to  have  been 
common  also.  Thummel  in  "Die  Reise  in  die  mittaglichen 
Provinzen  von  Frankreich"  gives  a  description  of  a  beautiful 
girl  who  had  become  insane  because  her  seducer  had  deserted 
her  after  she  became  a  prospective  mother.  She  attributes 
her  fall  to  such  games  of  kissing. 

Da  setzte  mir  die  Zeit  des  Pfandspiels  und  der  Kiisse 
Ans  Ohr  ein  Rauberheer,  das  immer  lauter  rief : 
Welch  Madchen!     Gott,  wie  siisse 
Und  wie  naiv!13 

We  get  an  excellent  idea  of  the  extent  of  this  custom  among 
young  people  from  Goethe's  experience  with  Friederike  Brion. 
He  tells  us  in  "Dichtung  und  Wahrheit"  how  careful  he  had 
been  not  to  kiss  a  girl  since  his  experience  with  the  daughters 
of  his  dancing-master  in  Strassburg.  "I  carefully  evaded 
every  desire  which  prompts  a  young  man  to  win  this  more  or 
less  valuable  favor  from  a  charming  girl.  But  even  in  the 
most  respectable  company  I  was  put  to  a  very  uncomfortable 
test.  Just  those  more  or  less  clever  games  which  young  people 

"See  "Ueber  Gesetzgebung  und  Kindermord,"  p.  4i8f.  J.  G.  Schlosser 
also  refers  to  certain  games  and  means  of  introduction  which  assisted  would-be 
seducers  of  servant  girls.  See  "  Kleine  Schriften,"  IV,  19. 

11 "  August  Moritz  von  ThUmmels  sammtliche  Werke."  Leipzig,  1839,  VI, 
23!. 


41 

like  to  play,  were  founded  on  pawns  for  the  release  of  which 
kisses  have  no  small  value."14  He  later  admits  that  the  friends 
who  tried  in  vain  for  a  long  time  to  get  him  to  kiss  Friederike, 
finally  succeeded. 

Masked  balls  and  nocturnal  dances  also  furnished  an  excel- 
lent opportunity  for  young  men  trained  in  seduction  to  lead 
girls  astray.  List  asserted  that  the  dancing-schools  of  his 
day  were  homes  of  sexual  vice.  Rabener,  long  before  the 
storm  broke,  objected  to  masked  balls.  Heinrich  Leopold 
Wagner  took  particular  delight  in  scoring  these  evils.  In 
"Die  Kindermorderinn "  Humbrecht,  the  father  of  Evchen, 
explains  to  the  Magister  that  he  has  no  objection  to  dances  in 
themselves:  "let  those  dance  there  who  belong  there — who 
objects?  For  the  men  and  women  of  the  nobility,  for  the 
squires  and  ladies,  who  because  of  all  their  distinction  do  not 
know  what  to  do  with  the  good  Lord's  time,  for  them  it  may 
be  pleasure — who  has  anything  against  it?  But  wives  of 
artisans,  daughters  of  civilians,  shall  keep  their  noses  out  of  it; 
they  can  wear  out  enough  shoes  at  weddings,  academic  ban- 
quets and  such  things,  they  do  not  need  to  gamble  on  their 
honor  and  good  name.  .  .  .  Especially  if  a  sugar-sweet  lad 
in  uniform,  or  a  little  baron— God  have  mercy  on  them — 
takes  a  girl  of  our  class  to  such  places,  then  one  can  bet  ten 
to  one  that  he  will  not  bring  her  back  home  as  he  got  her." 

The  kind  of  literature  read  and  the  type  of  plays  produced 
at  the  theaters  were  also  incentives  to  an  increase  of  sexual 
irregularities.  Seduction  had  a  veritable  heyday  in  Europe 
when  the  literature  of  sentimentalism  reached  its  zenith. 
Czerny  remarks:  "The  esthetic  value  of  these  works  is  in  the 
main  very  small:  they  are  of  much  greater  interest  to  the 
historian  of  civilization  than  to  the  historian  of  literature."15 
Jean  Paul  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  his  "  Gronlandische  Prozesse 
oder  satirische  Skizzen,"  having  previously  made  an  attempt  to 
trace  the  effects  of  sentimentalism  on  real  life,  says:  "Let  us 
return  to  our  attempt  to  depict  sentimentalism  from  the 
angle  which  has  been  decried  too  much,  and  try  to  convince 

14  Dritter  Theil.     Elftes  Buch.     Weimarer  Ausgabe,  28,  p.  13. 

16  J.  Czerny,  "Sterne,  Hippel  und  Jean  Paul."     Berlin,  1904,  p.  18. 


45 

the  fair  sex  that  it  is  still  to  its  advantage  to  weep  as  much  now 
as  before.  The  most  noted  thing  for  which  sentimentalism 
can  be  recommended  and  which  we  now  repeat,  is  undoubtedly 
this,  that  it  promotes  marriage,  especially  pre-nuptial  mar- 
riages (Vor-Ehen).  Like  circumcision,  it  has  not  only  hal- 
lowed the  souls  but  has  increased  the  number  of  physical 
bodies,  and  both  are  equally  useful  for  this  world  as  for  heaven. 
The  arithmetical  proof  for  this  assertion  we  will  leave  to  a 
second  Siissmilch,  to  whom  we  here  refer."16 

Eisenhardt  in  Lenz's  "Die  Soldaten,"  who  is  really  the 
moralist  Lenz  himself,  rebukes  the  officers  for  favoring  the 
type  of  plays  produced  at  the  theaters.  "The  grossest 
crimes  against  the  most  sacred  rights  of  fathers  and  families 
are  portrayed  in  the  most  alluring  colors.  ...  To  deceive 
a  vigilant  father,  or  to  instruct  an  innocent  girl  in  vice,  these 
are  the  plots  which  are  presented."  To  this  one  of  the  officers 
replies:  "Oh,  pshaw!  is  it  always  and  forever  necessary  to  be 
learning  something  at  the  theater?  We  simply  amuse  our- 
selves, is  not  that  enough?"  Eisenhardt  answers:  "Would 
to  heaven  that  you  only  amused  yourself  and  that  you  did 
not  learn!  As  it  is  you  imitate  what  is  performed  and  you 
bring  misfortune  and  curses  to  the  homes  of  honest  families." 

The  best  epitomization  of  the  status  of  the  sex  problem 
during  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  is  given  by 
Schubart  in  his  "Leben  und  Gesinnungen."  He  says:  "The 
Germans  were  formerly  distinguished  above  all  peoples,  as 
Tacitus  long  ago  remarked,  for  strict  chastity.  .  .  .  But  now — 
how  little  is  golden  chastity  valued  by  us!  Our  unnatural 
mimicry  of  the  French  has  introduced  all  kinds  of  frivolities 
among  us,  has  weakened  our  stamina,  and  degraded  us  so  far 
that  we  only  smile  at  prostitution  and  adultery.  Yes,  we 
seem  to  bend  all  our  energies  to  the  end  of  spoiling  our  children 
early  in  life.  We  teach  them  to  sing  songs  of  loving  and  kiss- 

16  Sussmilch  was  statistician  at  the  court  of  Frederick  the  Great  and  showed 
much  concern  about  the  increasing  number  of  illegitimate  children.  For  other 
expressions  on  the  detrimental  element  in  the  literature  of  sentimentalism,  cf . 
Schlosser,  "Kleine  Schriften,"  IV,  20;  "Christian  Friedrich  Daniel  Schubart's 
des  Patrioten  gesammelte  Schriften  und  Schicksale."  Stuttgart,  1839,  I,  i62f.; 
Gustav  Freytag,  "Bilder  aus  der  deutschen  Vergangenheit."  Leipzig,  1882, 
III,  98  and  349. 


46 

ing,  we  do  not  restrain  ourselves  in  their  presence,  we  take 
them  to  the  most  vicious  plays,  where  the  most  immoral  trans- 
gressions of  voluptuousness,  where  perjury  and  adultery, 
seduction  and  the  ruination  of  innocence  and  virtue  are  called 
mere  gallantry,  real  life  —  yes,  even  Enlightenment.  'On  the 
downy  pillows  of  voluptuousness,'  says  Young,  'many  a  king- 
dom has  gone  to  sleep!'  Will  you  fare  better,  my  fatherland? 
.  .  .  The  morals  here  and  in  Mannheim  are  quite  loose.  .  .  . 
Prostitution  and  adultery  are  fashionable  sins,  which  one,  it 
is  true,  confesses,  but  immediately  commits  again.  To  keep 
a  mistress  is  here,  as  in  Paris,  London,  Berlin,  good  taste. 
Voluptuousness  has  her  temples,  priests  and  priestesses,  here  as 
everywhere.  O,  ancient  German  chastity,  where  art  thou?"17 

But  all  these  causes  of  illegitimacy  were  only  immediate 
results  of  the  real  root  of  the  whole  trouble,  the  scarcity  of 
marriages.  Kreuzfeld  in  his  prize  essay  points  out  that  "the 
fewer  marriages  there  are,  the  more  illegitimate  sexual  re- 
lations, the  more  illegitimate  children,  the  more  infanticides."18 
Pestalozzi  spoke  of  his  day  as  "the  marriageless  age."  "The 
hosts  of  the  unmarried,"  he  asserts,  "yield  without  restraint 
to  all  the  allurements  of  their  sexual  needs  .  .  .  and  no  power 
of  honor  or  protective  national  morality  can  stop  the  destruc- 
tion of  our  country.  The  starting  point  of  all  human  degrada- 
tion is  hardness  of  heart  ;  and  the  simple  satisfaction  of  the  sex 
impulse  leads  immeasurably  less  to  that  than  does  forced 
subjugation  and  crooked  evasion  of  natural  sexual  intercourse. 
Our  public  morals  and  laws  seem  to  have  been  made  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  hardening  the  heart."19 

Who  were  these  hosts  of  the  unmarried?     First  of  all  the 

soldiers,  who  were  compelled  to  remain  unmarried. 

. 

Wer  sich  in  preussischen  Dienst  will  begeben, 
Der  muss  sich  sein  Lebtag  kein  Weibchen  nicht  nehmen: 
Er  muss  sich  nicht  furchten  vor  Hagel  und  Wind, 
Bestandig  verbleiben  und  bleiben  geschwind.20 


17"GesammelteSchriften,"  I,  1146".,  i62f. 

18  In  "Drei  Preisschriften,  etc.,"  p.  144. 

19  In  the  above  mentioned  essay,  pp.  385,  425. 

so  "  Husarenbraut.      Fliegendes    Blatt    aus    dem    siebenjahrigen    Kriege." 
See  "Des  Knaben  Wunderhorn,"  I,  189. 


47 

All  the  ruling  princes  of  that  time  believed  that  a  single  man 
was  a  better  soldier  than  a  married  one.  Laukhard,  upon 
his  return  from  a  trip  to  the  Prussian  army  in  Cham- 
pagne, wrote  of  the  terrible  corruption  of  morals  existing 
everywhere  that  soldiers  were  quartered.  "Of  the  terrible 
corruption  of  morals,"  he  writes,  "which  the  French  emigrants 
have  brought  to  pass  in  Germany,  I  too  have  been  a  witness. 
In  Koblenz  an  old  subaltern  officer  from  Trier  told  me  that 
from  the  age  of  twelve  on  there  was  not  a  single  maiden,  the 
damned  Frenchmen  had  made  every  girl  far  and  wide  a 
prostitute.  And  so  it  was,  all  the  girls  and  women,  even 
many  old  nuns  not  excepted,  were  intolerably  flirtatious.  One 
merchant's  daughter  confessed  openly  that  she  had  sold  her 
chastity  for  six  carolins  to  a  Frenchman.  No,  so  spoiled  our 
German  girls  never  were!  And  as  it  was  in  Koblenz,  so  it  was 
everywhere  where  these  emigrants  have  come."21 

Friedrich  Rudolph  Salzmann  reports  that  in  Strassburg 
"every  peasant  home  is  closed  to  the  officers  of  the  garrison, 
because  one  fears  ill  reports!"22  List  asserts  that  soldiers 
caused  frightful  devastation,  both  moral  and  physical,  among 
the  common  people.23  Schlosser  admits  that  wherever  the 
soldier  was  stationed,  there  civilian  freedom  was  impossible,24 
and  a  contributor  to  Schlozer's  Stats-Anzeigen  called  soldiers 
"hired  mercenaries  of  the  state,  who  destroy  good  morals."25 

This  then  accounts  for  the  frequent  delineation  of  the  sol- 
dier as  the  seducer  of  innocent  girls.  Lenz's  "Die  Soldaten" 
is  perhaps  the  most  striking  example.  In  Act  III,  scene  4,  of 
this  drama  Eisenhardt  exclaims:  "O  militarism,  terrible  un- 
married state,  what  caricatures  you  make  of  human  beings!" 
Lenz's  attitude  was  not  merely  a  revolt  against  the  soldiers' 
sexual  transgressions;  by  personal  experience  he  had  come  to 
believe  that  something  had  to  be  done  to  make  it  possible  for 
the  soldier  to  satisfy  his  sexual  needs.  He  had  this  in  mind 

"Johannes  Scherr,  "Deutsche  Kultur-  und  Sittengeschichte."  Leipzig, 
I8?3.  P.  473*. 

"  See  Johann|Froitzheim,  "Goethe  und  Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner,"  p.  48!. 

11  List,  "  Ueber  Hurerey  und  Kindermord,"  p.  s6f. 

"Schlosser,  "Kleine  Schriften,"  IV,  p.  24of. 

»  XI,  470.     Cf .  also  Muskalla,  "  J.  T.  Hermes,"  p.  29. 


48 

when  the  Countess  La  Roche  expounds  to  Marie,  the  victim  of 
the  soldier  Desportes,  that  the  "  soldier  ceases  to  be  a  good 
soldier  as  soon  as  he  becomes  a  good  lover,  for  he  has  sworn 
on  oath  to  the  king  that  he  will  not  be  a  lover  and  permits  the 
king  to  pay  him  for  it."  In  the  last  scene  of  the  drama  the 
colonel  reports  that  a  citizen  of  the  fatherland  with  his  whole 
family  has  been  dashed  into  irremediable  destruction.  The 
countess  frankly  asserts  that  it  is  the  "result  of  the  unmarried 
state  of  our  soldiery."  The  colonel  asks:  "How  shall  we  get 
rid  of  this  evil?  Even  Homer  asserted  that  a  good  husband 
and  father  was  a  poor  soldier,  and  experience  proves  it.  ...  I 
look  upon  the  soldier  as  a  monster  to  whom  from  time  to  time 
an  unfortunate  young  woman  must  be  willingly  sacrificed,  in 
order  that  other  wives  and  daughters  may  be  spared.  .  .  . 
There  should  be  established  by  the  king  endowed  institutions 
for  soldier-wives,  where  young  girls  might  sacrifice  their  lives 
to  the  good  of  the  state." 

To  this  latter  recommendation  Herder  objected.  In  his 
answer  Lenz  suggests  that  "as  far  as  the  last  scene  is  con- 
cerned, I  think  all  aggravating  difficulties  might  be  solved 
by  leaving  out  or  changing  a  few  expressions  of  the  colonel, 
e.  g.,  that  about  the  concubines,  might  be  left  out  entirely, 
and  the  colonel  could  speak  of  soldiers'  wives,  who,  like  the 
national  guard,  would  be  selected  by  lot  in  all  the  villages  and 
then,  like  the  Roman  women,  who  were  called  conferreata, 
they  could  marry  for  a  definite  period  of  years.  The  king 
would  rear  the  children,  the  girls  would  later  go  back  to  their 
home  villages  at  the  expiration  of  their  term  and  would  remain 
honorable."  To  these  suggestions  Lenz  added  further  that 
real  soldier-marriages  did  not  seem  to  him  feasible.  He 
must  have  changed  his  mind  soon  thereafter,  for  in  his  essay 
"Ueber  die  Soldatenehen "  he  ardently  favors  them.  From 
the  introduction  to  this  essay  we  learn  too  that  Lenz  actually 
planned  to  carry  out  Herder's  suggestion  in  regard  to  the  last 
scene  of  the  drama,  but  the  changes  were  never  printed. 

Perhaps  Lenz  so  speedily  changed  his  mind  because  public 
opinion  was  so  strongly  in  favor  of  soldier-marriages.  Hermes 
in  "Sophiens  Reise  von  Memel  nach  Sachsen"  lets  Puff  make 


49 

the  following  recommendations:  "I  would  give  the  soldier  a 
few  more  pfennings  per  day,  and  then  he  would  have  to  marry. 
Now  he  satisfies  his  desires  on  that  which  he  can  get  by  stealth 
from  the  other  sex,  consequently  he  becomes  beggarish,  has 
an  un-German  mind  and  is  thievish.  These  married  soldiers 
would  have  a  large  progeny,  consequently  the  enlistment  of 
foreign  soldiers  would  cease ;  love  for  the  fatherland  and  fidelity 
to  the  army  would  return  gradually,  and  the  invasion  of  for- 
eign vices  would  be  stopped.  More  than  that,  the  married 
soldier  would  be  active,  healthy,  and  because  he  goes  to  battle 
for  wife  and  child,  he  would  again  become  what  the  German 
formerly  was,  a  'Brafkerl'."26 

This  idea  of  soldier-marriages  found  such  universal  favor 
that  even  Moser  admitted  that  the  adoption  of  the  English 
plan  of  pseudo-marriage  would  be  preferable  to  existing  con- 
ditions. The  English  at  that  time  did  not  permit  unmarried 
women  to  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  army.  Instead  their 
soldiers  were  permitted  to  take  a  woman  to  wife  before  the 
drum  and  in  the  same  manner  part  from  her  again,  y"  English 
officers  have  assured  me,"  Moser  says  in  his  essay  "Von  den 
Militar-Ehen  der  Englander,"  "that  there  is  more  jealousy  on 
the  part  of  soldiers  for  such  a  wife  than  one  finds  in  Christian 
marriage.  .  .  .  Moreover  the  Englishman  loves  to  be  a 
father,  therefore  it  seldom  happens  that  he  deserts  a  woman 
whom  he  has  impregnated  or  fails  to  care  for  his  child."27 

"I,  6i9f.     The  passage  as  quoted  by  Muskalla,  in  his  " Johann  Timotheus 
Hermes,"  p.  27f.,  unless  the  edition  used  was  very  different  from  the  one  I  used, 
is  copied  incorrectly.     I  was  not  able  to  get  the  edition  he  used  and  could  there- 
fore not  compare.     The  suspicion  that  it  was  copied  incorrectly  is  confirmed  by 
two  other  references  on  the  same  page,  both  of  which  are  incorrect.     The  refer- 
ence to  Rachel,  4  Satyra,  p.  43,  Hallenser  Neudrucke  200/202,  should  read 
Der  Raben  Mutter  sucht  am  Galgen  ihr  Gewinn, 
Und  tragt  das  blutig  Aass  den  kalen  Jungen  hin. 

The  difference  between  "der  Raben  Mutter"  and  "die  Rabenmutter,"  as 
Muskalla  has  it,  and  between  "kalen"  and  "kalten,"  change  the  force  of  the 
passage  so  that  it  can  not  possibly  be  said  that  infanticide  was  referred  to.  The 
other  reference  is  to  Joseph  Hansen,  "Zauberwahn,  Inquisition  und  Hexenpro- 
zess  im  Mittelalter."  Miinchen  und  Leipzig,  1900.  The  reference  to  chap.  31 
is  an  impossibility  for  there  are  only  6  chapters. 

27  "Justus  Moser's  sammtliche  Werke."  Berlin  und  Stettin,  1798,  IV,  23f. 
Cf.  also  Pfeil,  "Drei  Preisschriften,"  p.  58;  Hess,  "Freymiithige  Gedanken," 
p.  384f.;  Hippel,  "Sammtliche  Werke,"  V,  248f. 


50 

Rector  Stuve  made  one  of  those  fantastic  recommendations 
which  one  finds  so  plentifully  during  this  period  .  '  '  How  would 
it  be,"  he  writes  in  an  article  entitled  "Nachrichten  von  der 
Frankfurtischen  Garnisonschule,  nebst  Vorschlagen  iiber  die 
Soldatenehen,"  "if  all  inmates  of  cloisters  and  convents  were 
given  permission  to  marry  officers  of  the  army?  How  many 
poor  girls  would  be  saved  from  this  absolutely  injudicious 
cloister  life!  How  many  could  thus  be  helped  to  husbands! 
How  many  heroic  officers  would  thus  obtain  wives!"28 

Nowhere  was  the  subject  of  soldier-marriages  threshed  out 
more  thoroughly  than  in  Lenz's  "Ueber  die  Soldatenehen," 
which  was  written  in  1776,  begun  as  early  as  1773,  but  not 
published  until  1914.  "The  dire  results  of  the  unmarried 
state  of  the  soldiers  are  without  number,  and  only  an  enemy 
of  mankind  would  recount  all  of  them.  .  .  .  How  many  dis- 
rupted marriages,  how  many  deserted  girls,  how  many  harlots 
so  dangerous  to  the  population,  how  many  other  horrible 
effects,  infanticide,  thefts,  poisonings  —  industry  has  ceased, 
.  .  .  the  arts  are  no  longer  practiced  .  .  .  where  is  the  cause?" 
He  refers  the  reader  to  an  account  of  soldier  life  by  a  certain 
Hollander  Steenkerk  of  Leipzig,  being  still  unwilling  to  have 
it  known  that  he  was  the  author  of  "Die  Soldaten." 

"What  should  the  soldier  fight  for?"  Lenz  asks.  "For 
the  king,  for  the  fatherland?  No.  Prosperity  and  self-de- 
fence are  the  real  things  for  which  a  soldier  should  fight.  O, 
ye  rulers!  are  ye  so  unacquainted  with  human  nature,  not 
to  feel  in  its  whole  force  what  new  life,  what  wonderful  power 
would  course  in  the  veins  of  your  soldiers  if  they  fought  for 
wives  and  children?"29  Then  Lenz  proceeds  to  outline  his 
plan  of  soldier-marriages.  Every  soldier  must  be  citizen 
first  of  all.  Half  of  his  time  shall  be  spent  in  the  army,  the 
other  half  at  home  with  his  family.  He  could  never  be  happier 
than  when  he  is  with  his  wife  who  awaits  him,  with  his  children 
who  work  for  him.  And  during  the  six  months  of  active 
service  he  would  work  like  a  beaver,  thinking  always  of  pro- 
tecting his  loved  ones  rather  than  of  planning  sexual  excesses. 


"  Berlinische  Monatsschrift,  V, 

19  "  Ueber  die  Soldatenehen,"  p.  4$f. 


51 

''And  if  war  should  come  would  he  not  fight  like  a  lion? 
Would  he  yield  to  a  bloodthirsty  enemy  who  stood  before  him, 
ready  to  rape  his  wife  and  kill  his  children?"30 

The  whole  object  of  his  essay  is  to  restore  good  morals  in 
society  and  to  do  away  with  that  just  hatred  which  existed 
between  soldiers  and  citizens.  The  soldier,  before  whom  every 
father  trembled  for  his  daughters,  every  husband  for  his  wife, 
would  again  stand  in  public  favor,  and  instead  of  being  a 
curse  to  humanity  he  would  become  a  blessing. 

Laukhard  did  not  approve  of  this  sentiment  favorable  to 
soldier-marriages.  He  had  seen  such  marriages  in  Halle  and 
did  not  get  a  very  good  impression  of  them.  He  asserted  that 
these  marriages  were  usually  unhappy  and  the  children,  if 
there  were  any,  were  of  small  value  to  the  state  because  of 
defective  rearing. 

Another  group  of  men  who  remained  unmarried,  for  a  time 
at  least,  were  the  students.  Cella  in  the  essay  referred  to 
above  recommended  the  establishment  of  public  institutions 
where  girls  might  sacrifice  themselves  to  the  sexual  needs  of 
these  men,  so  that  all  other  girls  could  retain  their  virtue. 
Still  another  group  that  played  havoc  with  public  morals  and 
destroyed  the  happiness  of  many  homes  were  private  tutors 
(Hofmeister) .  Lenz's  "Der  Hofmeister"  is  the  most  striking 
literary  treatment.  Here  Lauffer,  a  private  tutor,  seduces 
Gustchen,  a  mixture  of  sentimentalism  and  stupidity.  She 
flees  to  hide  her  condition,  but  is  later  found  by  her  father 
and  brought  back  to  the  paternal  home.  Fritzchen,  the  fruit 
of  the  forbidden  relationship,  is  adopted  by  Fritz  von  Berg, 
Gustchen 's  fiance,  she  herself  is  generously  forgiven  and  taken 
to  wife.  In  the  last  scene  of  the  drama  Fritz  von  Berg  takes 
the  child  in  his  arms,  kisses  it  and  exclaims:  "This  child  is 
mine  too;  a  sad  witness  of  the  weakness  of  your  sex  and  the 
stupidity  of  ours,  most  of  all  of  the  advantageous  education 
of  young  girls  by  tutors.  .  .  .  And  still  infinitely  precious  to 
me,  because  it  is  the  picture  of  its  mother.  At  any  rate,  my 
sweet  boy!  I  shall  never  have  you  educated  by  a  tutor." 

The  history  of  the  tutor  and  his  influence  is  of  course  con- 

••  Idem,  p.  32f. 


52 

nected  more  or  less  with  Rousseau's  "La  nouvelle  Heloise," 
in  which  St.  Preux  plays  the  role  of  the  seducer.  Arnim  was 
right  in  taking  this  influence  into  consideration  in  his  "Ver- 
kleidungen  des  franzosischen  Hofmeisters  und  seine  deutschen 
Zoglinge." 

More  important  than  these  types  of  seducers  was  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  nobility,  who  preyed  on  the  girls  of  the  lower 
classes.  It  is  important  to  note  that  this  type  met  with  very 
severe  criticism  by  imaginative  writers,  while  there  are  com- 
paratively few  references  to  it  in  other  literature.  The  expla- 
nation can  probably  be  found  in  the  fact  that  other  writers 
were  unable  to  publish  any  polemic  against  the  ruling  class. 
With  poets,  novelists  and  playwrights  it  was  quite  different. 
Their  allusions  were  only  indirect  and  they  could  always  hide 
behind  the  cloak  of  poetic  license. 

Linguet,  an  eminent  French  criminologist,  opposed  the 
abolition  of  capital  punishment  mainly  on  the  ground  that 
there  would  then  be  no  means  of  holding  the  nobility  in  check 
in  their  ravages  among  innocent  girls.  Hebel  tells  of  a  very 
interesting  method  of  punishing  a  young  baron,  who  in  a  city 
of  twenty  thousand  houses  led  astray  all  the  virtuous  girls. 
"Many  a  tear  witnessed  against  him,  many  a  marriage  and 
family  had  been  deprived  of  their  peace  and  happiness,  and 
he  always  laughed  at  what  he  had  done."  So  the  citizens  of 
the  city  formed  a  sort  of  Ku  Klux  Klan,  which  took  the  baron 
prisoner  one  night,  led  him  to  a  distant  place,  there  held  court 
and  condemned  him  to  die.  The  execution  was  postponed  to 
the  next  night,  thus  giving  the  baron  plenty  of  time  to  reflect 
on  his  past  life.  The  following  night  instead  of  executing 
him,  they  took  him  back  to  his  home.  He  never  again  at- 
tempted to  follow  his  former  course.31 

In  the  poetry  of  the  period  a  number  of  customs  of  these 
knights  of  the  nobility  are  revealed.  Writers  took  particular 
delight  in  ridiculing  the  knight  who  sent  out  a  squire  to  find 
him  a  bed-fellow.  Uz  in  a  poem  called  "Die  alten  und  heuti- 
gen  deutschen  Sitten"  compares  the  knight  of  old  to  his 
modern  successor: 

81 "  Hebel's  Werke,"  "  Deutsche  Nationallitteratur,"  142,  II,  292. 


53 

Dass  stets  der  kiihne  Junker  jagte, 
Auch  eh'  es  auf  den  Bergen  tagte, 
Hiess  ihnen  Streitbarkeit, 
Noch  jagt  und  schmaust  er  um  die  Wette, 
Indess  besorgt  ein  Freund  sein  Bette, 
Zu  unsrer  Zeit.32 

Friedrich  Graf  zu  Stolberg  in  his  poem  "Ritter  Bayard, 
genant  der  Ritter  sender  Furcht  und  Tadel"  tells  of  another 
such  voluptuous  knight: 

Einst,  als  er  gliihte  von  dem  Becher, 
Und  um  ihn  her 

erscholl  der  Rundgesang  der  Zecher, 
da  sandt'  er  seiner  Knappen  einen  aus, 
der  trat  in  ein  verarmtes  Haus. 

Here  he  finds  a  daughter,  who  is  led  away.  The  mother  fol- 
lows and  finally  through  her  entreaties  succeeds  in  persuading 
the  knight  to  forego  the  seduction  of  Dortchen.  The  poem 
ends  in  a  paean  of  praise  for  the  knight  and  all  others  who  do 
like  him.33 

The  folk-song  "Vom  Graf  en  und  der  Magd"  is  reproduced 
in  an  endless  variety  of  ways.  In  its  simplest  form  it  is  the 
story  of  a  count  who  seduces  a  girl  of  the  lower  classes  and 
then  when  she  is  a  prospective  mother,  deserts  her.  The 
girl  later  dies  either  before  or  in  child-birth.  Generally 
infanticide  is  merely  suggested.  So  it  is  for  instance  in  the 
version  which  Goethe  sent  to  Herder,  when  the  latter  was 
collecting  folk-songs.  The  mother  of  the  girl  when  she  dis- 
covers that  the  daughter  has  been  seduced  and  is  pregnant 
says: 

Seyd  still  seyd  still  Hebe  Tochter  mein, 
Der  Reden  seyd  ihr  stille. 
Wenn  wir  das  Kindlein  geboren  han 
So  wollen  wir's  lernen  schwimmen. 

The  girl  dies  before  the  child  is  born,  the  count  returns  too 
late,  and  stabs  himself  with  his  shining  sword. 

82  "  Bibliothek  der  deutschen  Klassiker,"  IV,  564*- 
KDeutsches  Museum,  1782*,  p.  68f. 


54 

The  extant  versions  of  this  folk-song  and  the  direct  utiliza- 
tions of  the  theme  it  contains  have  recently  been  compiled 
and  discussed  by  Rudolf  Thietz  in  "Die  Ballade  vom  Graf  en 
und  der  Magd.  Ein  Rekonstruktionsversuch  und  Beitrag 
zur  Charakterisierung  der  Volkspoesie."34  The  assertion  that 
this  ballad  is  a  real  folk-song  may  be  accepted,  but  certainly 
the  English  ballad  in  Percy's  collection  entitled  "Childe 
Waters"  ought  to  be  considered  in  determining  the  origin  and 
development.  It  is  not  at  all  impossible  that  the  German  folk- 
song is  only  one  of  a  much  larger  number  of  versions  among 
many  other  peoples,  or  it  might  be  possible  to  trace  all  the 
versions  in  Germany  back  to  the  English  ballad.  Why 
Burger's  poems  "Der  Ritter  und  sein  Liebchen"  and  "Des 
Pfarrers  Tochter  von  Taubenhain"  were  not  counted  among 
the  direct  variations  of  this  ballad,  is  not  clear  to  me.  That 
Burger  was  interested  in  Percy's  "relique"  is  evidenced  by  his 
translation  of  the  English  poem  under  the  title  "Graf  Walter. 
Nach  dem  Alt-Englischen."  The  first  of  this  trio  of  poems 
may  be  looked  upon  as  the  embryonic  form  of  "Des  Pfarrers 
Tochter  von  Taubenhain."  It  tells  the  story  of  a  knight  who 
is  about  to  depart  for  war.  He  bids  adieu  to  the  girl  he  has 
got  with  child.  Upon  her  wish  that  he  may  soon  return  to 
claim  her  as  his  bride  he  laughs. 

Drauf  ritt  der  Ritter  hop  sa  sa! 
Und  strich  sein  Bartchen  trallala! 
Sein  Liebchen  sah  ihn  reiten, 
Und  horte  noch  von  weiten 
Sein  Lachen  ha  ha  ha! 

A  reader  of  Percy's  ballad  cannot  fail  to  detect  the  similarity. 
The  most  artistic  treatment  of  the  theme  is  to  be  found  in 
Heinrich  von  Kleist's  "Das  Kathchen  von  Heilbronn."35 
This  drama  follows  Percy's  ballad  more  closely  in  utilizing 

84  Strassburg,  1913.  See  Vol.  119  of  "Quellen  und  Forschungen  zur  Sprach- 
und  Culturgeschichte  der  germanischen  Volker."  Goethe's  poem  is  entitled 
"Das  Lied  vom  Herren  und  der  Magd."  See  Der  junge  Goethe,  ed.  2,  II,  68f. 

86  "  Gottfried  August  Burgers  sammtliche  Werke."  Gottingen,  1829,  I,  p. 
I32f.:  Der  Ritter  und  sein  Liebchen;  II,  29:  Des  Pfarrers  Tochter  von  Tauben- 
hain; II,  I42f.:  Graf  Walter. 


55 

the  same  happy  solution,  instead  of  permitting  the  affair  to 
end  in  a  tragedy: 

O  nun,  o  nun,  suss  susse  Maid, 
Suss  susse  Maid,  halt'  ein! 
Es  soil  ja  Tauf '  und  Hochzeit  nun 
In  Einer  Stunde  seyn. 

There  was  written  during  this  period  a  veritable  flood  of 
literature  in  which  the  difference  of  social  rank  (Standesunter- 
schied)  plays  an  important  role,  but  the  consideration  of  this 
lies  outside  of  this  research. 

These,  then,  were  the  hosts  of  the  unmarried.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  the  problem  of  marriage  was  discussed  by  men  of 
every  class.  There  were  two  opinions.  There  were  those 
that  favored  doing  away  with  the  public  disgrace  which  at- 
tached to  illegitimate  sexual  relations  and  a  return  to  the 
natural  state,  as  nearly  as  that  was  possible.  But  the  other 
opinion,  and  it  was  held  by  the  majority,  favored  doing  away 
with  all  obstacles  to  legal  marriage,  and  urged  the  specific 
encouragement  of  such  marriages.  Hippel  introduced  the 
slogan:  "Go  into  the  marriage  cloister!"  although  he  himself 
was  a  bachelor  for  life.  That  was  the  burden  of  his  whole 
message  in  his  essay  "Ueber  die  Ehe."  "The  thermometer  of 
morality  always  has  been  matrimony,"  he  asserted,  "as  it 
was  with  the  number  of  marriages,  so  stood  the  stocks  and 
bonds  of  public  morals!"36  The  old  assertion  that  the  sole 
object  of  marriage  was  the  propagation  and  rearing  of  children 
was  attacked  especially  by  Kant.  He  did  not  wish  to  oppose 
marriage,  but  wanted  to  make  of  it  an  institution  in  harmony 
with  Pure  Reason.37  Hamann  was  inclined  to  be  more  con- 
servative still  and  sided  with  Moser  and  others  in  defending 
absolute  state  rights  and  denying  that  natural  rights  entered 
into  the  question.38  Herr  Deutsch  and  Puff  in  Hermes* 
"Sophiens  Reise  von  Memel  nach  Sachsen"  have  a  long  de- 
bate on  the  merits  of  legal  marriage  and  on  the  proper  defini- 

»  "Sammtliche  Werke,"  V,  24. 

17  "Sammtliche  Werke,"  Leipzig,  1867,  VII,  I4pf. 

88  "Hamann's  Schriften."     Herausgegeben  von  Friedrich  Roth  zu  Berlin, 

1824,  IV,  223f. 


56 

tion  of  adultery.  The  object  of  Hermes  was  evidently  to 
preach  that  adultery  could  be  prevented  if  each  individual 
would  guarantee  his  own  virtue  by  not  destroying  the  chastity 
-of  others.  He  further  penetrated  to  the  crux  of  the  whole 
problem  by  insisting  that  seduction  and  desertion  were  due  to 
masculine  and  not  feminine  vice,  that  a  woman  never  becomes 
a  harlot  willingly,  but  only  because  some  man  has  in  the 
first  instance  made  her  be  one.  The  day  was  coming  when 
woman  would  no  longer  be  considered  the  "gate  of  the  devil." 

n""  The  revolt  was  directed  not  merely  at  evils  in  everyday  life 
ind  at  erroneous  ideas  which  kept  so  many  men  from  marrying, 
)ut  also  at  the  injustice  of  the  punishment  usually  meted  out 
;o  unmarried  mothers,  and  at  antiquated  laws  and  customs. 
The  revolt  against  existing  laws  will  be  considered  first. 

In  a  review  of  Lenz's  "Zerbin"  in  the  Neue  Bibliothek  der 
schonen  Wissenschaften  und  der  freyen  Kunste  we  read:  "The 
story  again  prompts  the  sad  reflection  how  so  often  human 
and  divine  justice  are  so  utterly  contradictory,  because  the 
former  judges  the  external  deed  only,  while  the  latter  undoubt- 
edly takes  into  consideration  the  whole  series  of  causes  which 
have  involuntarily  brought  about  the  deed.  Sometimes  it  is 
unavoidable,  but  in  most  cases  the  fault  lies  with  the  excessive 
severity  of  the  laws,  which  in  the  end  results  in  bribes  given  by 
those  who  can  pay  them,  and  does  not  lessen  vice  but  instead 
leads  to  other  crimes.  Against  such  barbarity  poets  should 
direct  their  attacks,  if  they  really  want  to  be  poets  of  the  people. 
.  .  .  Depict  cruelties,  abuses,  vices  and  crimes,  for  the  exist- 
ence of  which  the  prevailing  religion,  the  severity  or  caprice 
and  unnaturalness  of  many  a  law  code  is  to  blame."39 

Pestalozzi,  after  discussing  the  circumstances  which  led  a 
young  woman  to  commit  infanticide,  concluded:  "O  you 
judges!  The  girl  loved  her  babe,  but  because  of  your  penal 
laws  she  killed  it."40  But  the  main  attack  against  existing 
law  was  directed  against  its  incompatibility  with  natural  law. 
Justus  Moser,  who  invariably  defended  current  law  and  cus- 
tom, in  an  essay  "Ueber  die  zu  unsern  Zeiten  verminderte 

"Leipzig,  1778,  XXII,  7Sff. 

40  In  "Ueber  Gesetzgebung  und  Kindermord,"  p.  409.  For  similar  opinions 
see  Schlozer,  Stats-Anzeigen,  X,  3S2f.;  Idem,  V,  386;  VII,  262f. 


57 

Schande  der  Huren  und  Hurkinder"  classed  every  unmar- 
ried mother  as  a  harlot  and  had  absolutely  no  sympathy  for 
her  or  her  child.  He  ridicules  the  "  Philosophen  "  for  defend- 
ing the  infanticide,  and  especially  the  unmarried  mother  who 
did  not  kill  her  child.  "The  motives  which  have  prompted 
this  defence  have  undoubtedly  been  great,"  he  says,  "na- 
ture, humanity  and  love  of  mankind  have  favored  their 
defence.  But  at  bottom  it  is  only  the  unpolitical  philosophy 
of  our  century  which  again  shows  its  prowess.  It  is  again  the 
new-fangled  humanitarianism  which  is  gaining  at  the  expense 
of  patriotism.  It  is  at  most  the  Christian  compassion  which 
fills  a  gap  in  our  civil  constitution,  but  which  must  not  be 
carried  too  far.  The  question  cannot  be  simply:  what  are 
the  rights  of  mankind?  when  civil  law  is  concerned.  In  the 
natural  state  there  is  no  marriage,  and  as  soon  as  one  transfers 
conceptions  of  marriage  from  the  civil  state  to  the  natural 
state,  there  results  a  dangerous  confusion  the  effects  of  which 
are  much  more  harmful  than  one  imagines."41  Moser  denied 
that  there  was  any  natural  law  which  could  be  taken  into 
consideration  in  sexual  matters,  the  only  tangible  source 
being  biblical  tradition.  That  had  been  the  contention  of  the 
church  for  a  thousand  years;  it  had  not  yet  relinquished  its 
control. 

But  Moser  was  mistaken.  "The  rights  of  nature  have  the 
right  of  way  above  all  others,  and  can  not  possibly  be  destroyed 
by  something  which  is  merely  a  human  convention,"  one  of 
the  defenders  of  natural  law  aptly  asserted.  Hess  insisted 
that  "civil  laws  may  often  be  able  to  forbid  what  nature 
permits,  but  they  will  fail  in  their  attempt  if  they  try  to 
abrogate  the  laws  of  nature:  to  command  instinct,  which  is 
essential  to  all  creatures,  to  cease.  I  call  that  an  attempt 
to  put  nature  in  bondage."42  Pestalozzi  also  asserted  that 
nature  places  on  all  humanity  the  necessity  of  satisfying  the 
sex  impulse  and  that  this  necessity  is  accompanied  by  duties 
of  fatherhood  and  motherhood.  "Custom  and  law  sanctify 
these  duties  in  matrimony,  but  they  are  no  less  sacred  with 

41 " Patriotische  Phantasien."  In  "Sammtliche  Werke."  Berlin,  1798, 
II,  i63f. 

42  "Freymiithige  Gedanken,"  Hamburg,  1775,  p.  58f. 


58 

unmarried  parents,  and  a  civil  constitution  which  fails  to 
recognize  these  is  a  fertile  source  of  the  abominations  of 
immorality  in  Europe."43  And  Schlosser  argued  that  the 
"power  of  the  sexual  desire  and  the  power  of  fear  know 
no  law.  .  .  .  One  need  but  look  with  one  eye  to  know  that 
your  punishments  for  prostitution  never  have  put  a  stop  to 
the  instinct  of  nature,  and  even  if  your  punishments  were 
made  more  lenient  this  instinct  would  not  have  any  greater 
freedom. ' *44  This  denial  of  the  efficacy  of  the  ' '  Abschreckungs- 
theorie"  was  also  made  by  List:  "In  the  enjoyment  of  the 
present  pleasure  these  girls  are  deaf,  .  .  .  the  results  of 
sexual  irregularities  seem  to  them  of  no  consequence."45 

What  specific  laws  and  customs  did  these  writers  have  in 
mind?  First  of  all  capital  punishment  of  infanticide.  The 
whole  controversy  over  this  punishment  went  back  to  a  little 
book  by  the  Italian  criminologist  Beccaria  referred  to  above.46 
That  the  subject  was  very  popular  is  proved  by  Goethe's 
"Positiones  juris."  Number  53  reads:  "Poenae  capitales 
non  abrogandae,"  and  number  55:  "An  foemina  partum  re- 
center  editum  trucidans  capite  plectenda  sit?  quaestio  est  inter 
Doctores  controversa."47 

The  most  noted  opponent  of  capital  punishment  in  Ger- 
many was  Viktor  Barkhausen.  In  an  article  in  the  Deutsches 
Museum,  entitled  "Ueber  Abschaffung  der  Todesstrafen," 
after  discussing  the  injustice  of  capital  punishment  in  general, 
he  turns  to  the  punishment  of  infanticide  in  particular.  As 
to  capital  punishment  in  general,  he  accepts  Beccaria's  con- 
tention that  it  is  neither  necessary  nor  useful.  "As  for  infan- 
ticide," he  continues,  "it  presupposes  a  very  extraordinary 
condition,  in  which  the  mind  is  so  completely  overwhelmed 
with  notions  of  disgrace  that  neither  virtue  nor  vice  nor  even 
death  nor  life  itself  nor  any  similar  thing  in  this  world  is  of 
any  avail.  The  poor  girl  thinks  only  of  disgrace  and  shame 
and  honor  and  good  name.  Deprived  of  all  human  sympathy, 

43  "  Ueber  Gesetzgebung  und  Kindermord,"  p.  385. 

44  "Kleine  Schriften,"  IV,  p.  27. 

46  "Ueber  Hurery  und  Kindermord,"  p.  i. 
48  Supra,  p.  38. 

47  Derjunge  Goethe,  ed.  2,  II,  97. 


59 

not  even  in  full  possession  of  her  senses,  probably  hardly 
conscious  of  what  she  does,  the  mother  hazards  a  deed  which 
alone  seems  to  be  able  to  save  her  from  her  dilemma — she 
commits  infanticide  or  even  suicide.  Is  it  possible  to  imagine 
that  a  girl  under  such  circumstances  would  think  of  the  death 
penalty,  that  she  would  be  horrified  by  the  prospect  of  losing 
her  life,  when  she  would  only  be  too  glad  to  give  it  if  her  honor 
could  be  restored?"48  Sturz,  Wekhrlin,  Pestalozzi,  Pfeil  and 
many  others  agreed  with  him,  urging  that  capital  punishment 
should  not  be  inflicted  on  infanticides.  It  was  also  the  opinion 
of  von  Hess,  Iselin,  J.  G.  Schlosser,  Klippstein,  Thiimmel  and 
a  host  of  the  contestants  for  the  Mannheim  prize. 

Still  others  were  not  willing  that  this  punishment  should 
be  abolished,  but  agreed  that  the  manner  of  execution  should 
be  changed.  Pestalozzi  called  public  executions  "kalte 
Gerechtigkeitsschauspiele."  He  tells  of  a  hysterical  girl  who 
was  so  impressed  by  the  solemnities  attendant  upon  the 
execution  of  an  infanticide  that  she  poisoned  the  child  of  her 
master  and  found  unusual  delight  in  reporting  it  to  the  author- 
ities and  then  in  suffering  the  beautiful  death  by  decapitation. 
He  cites  this  as  an  example  how  public  executions  were  an  in- 
ducement to  crime  rather  than  a  deterrent. 

The  argument  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  capital  punish- 
ment met  with  stubborn  resistance.  Nicolai  and  his  staff  on 
the  Allgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek  consistently  opposed  every 
suggestion  to  this  end.  Moser  wrote:  "The  question  has 
often  been  asked,  Whence  has  the  government  the  right  to 
punish  this  or  that  criminal  by  death?  It  seems  to  me,  we 
should  get  much  farther  if  we  asked,  Whence  has  the  govern- 
ment the  right  to  let  this  or  that  criminal  live?"49  Kant  too 
opposed  the  abolition  of  this  punishment  but  made  two  not- 
able exceptions.  "There  are  two  crimes,"  he  said,  "which 
are  worthy  to  be  punished  by  death,  but  which  are  of  such  a 
nature  as  to  cast  doubt  on  the  right  of  legislation  to  decree 
this  penalty.  The  cause  of  both  crimes  is  the  sense  of  honor 
(Ehrgef iihl) .  In  the  one  case  it  is  the  honor  of  sex  (Geschlechts- 

48  Dcutschcs  Museum,  I7761,  p.  6y6f. 
*• "  Sammtliche  Werke,"  IV,  130. 


60 

ehre),  in  the  other  the  honor  of  war  (Kriegsehre) .  The 
one  crime  is  maternal  infanticide,  the  other  the  duel.  The 
state  requires  absolute  obedience  to  its  demand  that  honor  be 
preserved;  the  unmarried  mother  tries  to  conform  to  this 
demand  by  concealing  her  pregnancy  and  the  birth  of  an  ille- 
gitimate child,  and  then  she  kills  it.  To  punish  such  a  woman 
is  a  contradiction  to  the  requirement."50 

Torture  had  been  abolished  in  practically  all  parts  of  Europe, 
at  least  in  its  more  terrible  forms.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  Moser  was  willing  to  shift  the  power  of  decreeing  torture 
from  the  hands  of  the  judges  to  a  jury  of  twelve,  as  was  cus- 
tomary in  England  at  that  time.51 

While  there  were  many  who  recommended  the  abolition  of 
all  manner  of  punishments  for  infanticide,  most  of  the  writers 
still  favored  some  form  of  punishment.  Gottlieb  Schlegel, 
a  contestant  for  the  Mannheim  prize,  recommended  an  annual 
sermon,  to  which  all  the  infanticides  in  the  local  prison  should 
be  brought.  After  the  sermon  they  were  to  be  led  to  the  place 
of  execution  and  then  back  to  prison.  Schlosser  suggested  an 
annual  exhibition  of  infanticides  for  a  period  of  six  to  ten  years. 
Klippstein  proposed  to  differentiate  the  punishment  of  vicious 
and  of  unfortunate  infanticides.  For  the  former  he  demanded 
the  death  penalty  invariably.  "A  week  before  the  execution 
the  murderess  shall  be  led  through  all  the  streets  of  the  city. 
There  shall  be  solemnities  of  such  a  kind  that  all  those  who 
see  shall  stand  in  awe  with  fear  and  trembling.  The  portrait 
of  the  dead  child  would  be  carried  ahead,  also  the  instrument 
of  murder;  the  murderess  would  follow  in  a  white  gown  be- 
sprinkled with  blood.  She  would  be  accompanied  by  a  guard 
and  a  procession  of  school  children,  the  latter  singing  some 
well  chosen  song  of  penance.  The  execution  itself  would  take 
place  before  the  home  of  the  guilty  girl.  In  this  way  the  hor- 
ror of  the  crime  would  be  deeply  impressed  on  all  minds". 
For  five  years  thereafter  on  the  Sunday  following  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  crime,  a  sermon  would  be  preached  from  every 
pulpit  in  the  country  on  this  terrible  crime,  and  on  the  fol- 

BO"Sammtliche  Werke,"  Leipzig,  1868,  VII, 
61  "Sammtliche  Werke,"  V,  n8f. 


61 

lowing  day  a  well  written  essay  on  the  same  subject  would  be 
read  in  all  the  schools.  The  unfortunate  infanticide  would  be 
condemned  to  life  imprisonment.  On  the  anniversary  of  her 
crime  she,  dressed  in  a  special  gown,  a  rope  placed  aronud  her 
neck,  and  torches  in  her  hands,  would  be  led  from  the  prison, 
taken  to  the  church  door,  and  the  next  day  she  would  be  ex- 
hibited in  all  the  schools.52 

The  frequent  proposal  that  the  infanticide  be  punished 
annually  prompts  the  question,  Was  this  manner  of  punish- 
ment ever  resorted  to?  We  have  at  least  one  case  to  prove 
that  it  was.  On  the  3ist  of  October,  1778,  the  king  of  Sweden 
decreed  that  no  infanticide  should  be  punished  by  death; 
instead  she  should  be  whipped  and  then  imprisoned  for  life, 
or  for  a  period  of  years.  Every  year,  however,  on  the  anni- 
versary of  the  crime,  she  should  be  exposed  publicly  in  a 
pillory  for  two  hours  or  more  and  then  be  whipped,  with  stripes 
apportioned  according  to  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
crime  was  committed.53 

The  revolt  against  existing  canon  law  which  dealt  with 
sexual  transgressions  was  no  less  vehement.  Barkhausen 
lamented  that  so  many  law-makers  and  jurists  were  surrounded 
by  a  swarm  of  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  theologians. 
Hess  accused  the  clergy  of  shirking  their  own  responsibility. 
Instead  of  taking  the  sex  problem  in  hand  and  eradicating 
the  root  of  the  trouble,  they  garrulously  shifted  the  respon- 
sibility to  the  government  by  urging  that  it  eradicate  the  sex 
evils  even  if  many  innocent  people  should  perish.  He  points 
out  that  the  fees  charged  for  the  performance  of  the  wedding 
ceremony  were  exorbitant  and  unchristian,  and  "  I  know  coun- 
tries where  the  baptismal  ceremony  must  be  paid  for  doubly 
if  the  child  was  born  out  of  wedlock.  This  is  decidedly 
unjust,  since  the  unmarried  mother  always  has  less  means  than 
a  young  married  mother  and  because  the  father  frequently 
cannot  be  found."54 

The  first  specific  object  of  attack  was  the  old  assertion  that 
marriage  had  to  be  in  accord  with  Mosaic  law.  Thummel 

62  "Drei  Preisschriften,"  p.  gif.     Cf.  also  List,  loc.  cit.,  p.  u8f. 

«  Schlozer,  Briefwechsel,  V,  4if . 

M  "  Freymiithige  Gedanken,"  p.  58f. 


62 

would  preach  not  of  the  grace  of  God,  not  of  conversion,  not 
of  the  trinity,  but  of  human  cruelty.  He  would  do  as  the 
founder  of  the  Christian  church  did,  not  search  some  old  book 
of  chronicles  for  the  attitude  of  the  people  that  lived  a  thou- 
sand years  ago ;  he  would  take  hold  of  the  life  of  his  day  and 
stamp  out  the  viper  wherever  it  was  found.  Barkhausen 
asserted:  "The  laws  of  the  Jews  are  not  our  laws  and  never 
were  intended  for  us,  for  we  are  a  people  of  a  very  different 
temperament,  of  a  different  character  and  of  a  different  man- 
ner of  thinking." 

Then  there  was  the  bigotry  of  the  church  which  Klinger 
so  vehemently  attacked  in  all  of  his  literary  productions.  In 
his  "Faust"  he  tells  of  a  banquet  in  hell,  at  which  the  pages 
carry  torches  "made  from  the  souls  of  monks,  who  .  .  . 
force  the  husband  and  father  on  his  death  bed  to  will 
his  wealth  to  the  church,  without  considering  that  their 
own  adulterous  brood  must  beg  in  the  land."65  Goethe  too 
in  the  cathedral  scene  of  "Faust"  brings  out  very  vividly  the 
great  gulf  which  had  come  into  existence  between  Christ  and 
the  church.  Coupland  says  of  this  scene:  " In  the  cathedral 
scene  the  stern  unbending  sentence  of  the  orthodox  religious 
world,  of  the  self-righteous  saint.  In  the  last  scene  of  all  the 
still  small  whisper  from  the  High  Throne,  above  the  harshness 
of  arrogant  human  virtue  and  ecclesiastical  pride — the  word 
of  mercy  and  full  pardon."56  When  Riihle  once  told  Goethe 
that  people  called  him  a  heathen  he  answered:  "la  heathen? 
Well,  I  had  Gretchen  executed  and  I  let  Ottilie  die  of  star- 
vation; isn't  that  Christian  enough?  What  more  Christian 
act  do  they  want?"57 

I  have  pointed  out  in  a  preceding  chapter  that  public  church 
penance  was  abolished  by  Frederick  the  Great  in  1746.  In 
most  of  the  states  this  example  was  followed  soon  thereafter, 
so  that  Kindleben  could  define  church  penance  as  an  evil  which 
had  fallen  into  "disfavor  and  was  gradually  receiving  the 

66 "  Sammtliche  philosophische  Romane,"  Leipzig,  1810,  I,  33!.  Cf.  also 
Sprickmann,  "Das  Strumpfband,"  in  Deutsches  Museum,  i?762,  p.  io83f. 

66  William  Chatterton  Coupland,  "The  Spirit  of  Goethe's  Faust."     London, 
1885,  p.  174- 

67  See  Graf,  "  Goethe  iiber  seine  Dichtungen,"  II,  2,  177. 


63 

consilium  abeundi."5*  Meissner  expressed  doubt  as  to  whether 
infanticide  would  happen  very  often  if  church  penance  were 
abolished.59  Pfeil,  who  lived  in  Prussia,  asserted  that  it 
was  not  to  be  denied  that  church  penance,  especially  when 
administered  by  an  unreasonable  divine,  often  was  the  real 
cause  of  the  commission  of  infanticide.60  But  Moser  again 
opposed  this  movement.  In  an  essay,  "Also  ist  die  Kirchen- 
busse  so  ganz  nicht  abzuschaffen,"  he  says:  "It  should  not  be 
asserted  on  general  grounds  that  an  increase  or  decrease  in  the 
public  disgrace  of  a  fallen  girl  would  have  an  influence  on  the 
commission  of  infanticide.  I  personally  feel  sorry  for  the 
poor  girl  and  I  gladly  believe  that  she  has  fallen  in  all  inno- 
cence ;  but  that  is  no  reason  for  excusing  her  from  undergoing 
church  penance.  If  the  government  wishes  to  do  so,  that  is 
none  of  my  business,  but  I  shall  not  make  any  recommenda- 
tion to  that  effect."61 

That  Moser  was  mistaken  in  this  opinion  also  is  shown  best 
by  the  petition  which  Goethe  sent  to  Duke  Karl  August  in 
1780,  requesting  the  Duke  to  abolish  public  church  penance 
because,  as  he  specifically  stated,  it  was  frequently  the  cause 
of  infanticide.  Bernhard  Suphan  tries  to  trace  the  influence 
of  Goethe's  activity  in  this  direction  on  two  of  his  literary 
productions.  The  one  is  a  poem  "  Verantwortung  eines 
Schwangern  Madgens,"  later  entitled  "  Vor  Gericht,"  the  other 
the  thirteenth  chapter  of  the  first  book  of  "Wilhelm  Meisters 
Lehrjahre."  The  poem  however  probably  dates  back  to  the 
Strassburg  period  and  the  passage  in  "Wilhelm  Meisters 
Lehrjahre"  at  least  to  1776.  It  would  be  better  therefore 
not  to  limit  the  revelation  of  Goethe's  interest  in  unmarried 
motherhood  in  these  two  literary  productions  to  his  attempts 
to  have  public  church  penance  abolished  in  1780,  but  rather  to 
take  them  as  two  more  instances  of  the  intensity  of  the  poet's 
sympathy  for  the  unmarried  mother.  Beginning  with  the 
positiones  juris  at  Strassburg  this  sympathy  was  revealed  more 

""Studenten-Lexicon,"  p.  48. 

69  Carl  Friedrich  Meissner,  "Zwo  Abhandlungen  iiber  die  Frage:  Sind   die 
Findel-Hauser  vorteilhaft  oder  schadlich?"     Gottingen,  1779,  p.  105. 
80  "Drei  Preisschriften,"  p.  29. 
M  " Patriotische  Phantasien."     Berlin,  1843,  V,  I07f.;  loc.  cit.,  nof. 


64 

and  more  in  "Werther,"  "Stella"  and  the  "Urfaust,"  and  the 
intensity  of  the  appeal  in  the  poem  and  in  "Wilhelm  Meister" 
referred  to  above  indicates  that  this  sympathy  had  not  abated 
in  the  least.  In  all  of  these  productions  the  poet  extends  his 
sympathy  by  taking  an  active  part  in  the  girl's  defense.62  In 
the  poem  the  girl  refuses  to  tell  the  name  of  the  father  of  her 
illegitimate  child. 

Soil  Spott  und  Hohn  getragen  sein, 
Trag'  ich  allein  den  Hohn. 
Ich  kenn'  ihn  wohl,  er  kennt  mich  wohl, 
Und  Gott  weiss  auch  davon. 

Herr  Pfarrer  und  Herr  Amtmann  ihr, 
Ich  bitte,  lasst  mich  in  Ruh! 
Es  ist  mein  Kind,  es  bleibt  mein  Kind, 
Ihr  gebt  mir  ja  nichts  dazu. 

In  spite  of  her  unfortunate  condition,  the  girl  is  truly  a  mother, 
only  the  harshness  of  the  representatives  of  church  and  state 
could  force  her  to  kill  her  child.  The  "Eternal  Feminine" 
which  Goethe  depicted  so  wonderfully,  is  here  also  revealed 
in  the  girl's  refusal  to  cause  her  lover  any  inconvenience.  She 
is  willing  to  bear  the  burden  alone. 

In  a  "  Herderisches  Votum"  of  1780  Herder  tells  in  forceful 
prose  the  intensity  of  his  sympathy  for  the  unmarried  mother. 
"Da  steht  eine  arme  Weibsperson,  die  vielleicht  der  Augen- 
blick  beriickt  hat,  die  durch  ihren  kurzen  Fehltritt  Gliick, 
Ehre,  Gut,  vielleicht  auf  Zeitlebens  eingebiisst  hat;  sie  kniet 
weinend  nieder  und  wird  ein  Schauspiel  des  Diebes,  des  kalten 
Frevlers  und  Bosewichts,  der  bei  ihr  steht.  .  .  .  Als  Pfarrer 
soil  ich  die  arme  Knieende  mit  grossem  Pomp  fragen :  Glaubst 
du  wahrhaftig,  dass  ich  als  ordentlicher  Pfarrer  dieses  Orts 
von  Gottes  wegen  Macht  und  Gewalt  habe,  dir  diese  offent- 
liche  Siinde  zu  vergeben?  und  sie  kann  mich  fragen:  Glaubst 
du  aber  auch,  dass  du  als  ein  ordentlicher  Pfarrer  dieses  Ortes 
von  Gottes  wegen  nicht  Macht  und  Gewalt  hast,  meiner 

62  See  "Goethe  im  Conseil.  Urkundliches  aus  seiner  amtlichen  Thatigkeit 
1778-1785,"  in  vol.  VI,  597ff.  of  Vierteljahrschrift  fur  Litter  aturgeschichte. 
Weimar,  1893. 


65 

Nachbarin,  die  die  Ehe  gebrochen,  meinem  Nachbar,  dem 
Hofdiener,  dem  Soldaten,  dem  Diebe,  dem  Verachter  der 
Sakramente,  Sunde  zu  vergeben  oder  zu  behalten?"  Goethe 
and  Herder  very  clearly  realized  that  of  all  those  who  commit 
sins,  the  unmarried  mother  was  punished  most  severely  in 
comparison  with  the  gravity  of  her  crime. 

The  nuns  also  come  in  for  their  share  of  sympathy  as  sacri- 
fices to  arbitrary  power.  The  poets  of  the  period  want  them 
set  free,  so  that  they  can  be  human,  and  do  their  human  duty 
as  mothers  of  families.  So  the  nun  who  cannot  forget  that 
she  was  a  woman  before  she  was  a  nun  finds  special  favor. 
The  abbess  in  Leisewitz*  "Julius  von  Tarent"  is  asked  by 
Julius:  "What  separated  you  from  the  world,  devotion  or 
these  walls?  Have  you  never  loved?  What  were  you  first, 
nun  or  woman?"  To  which  she  answers:  "O  Prince,  let  me 
alone.  Nineteen  years  I  have  wept  and  still  there  are  tears. 
.  .  .  Omy  Ricardo!"63 

There  were  three  types  of  girls  who  were  sent  to  convents 
against  their  will.  First,  there  were  those  whose  parents 
were  unable  or  unwilling  to  pay  the  large  wedding-fees. 
Secondly,  there  were  those  put  into  convents  for  safety.  The 
third  class  consisted  of  those  sent  to  the  convents  because  of 
some  undue  influence,  the  real  object  being  to  obtain  the 
property  which  the  girls  would  inherit.  The  latter  happened 
particularly  if  there  was  only  one  girl  in  the  family,  or  if  she 
was  the  only  child.  Johann  Martin  Miller  and  Anton  Mat- 
thias Sprickmann  wrote  so  much  of  nuns  that  they  were  called 
' '  Nonnendichter. ' ' 64 

A  suggestion  often  met  with  in  the  writings  of  the  period 
is  to  punish  the  seducer.  Because  of  his  superior  knowledge 

63  Cf.  Goethe,  "Gottfried  von  Berlichingen,"  Act  I,  Maria  to  Weislingen: 
"Sie  [die  Abtissin  meines  Klosters]  hatte  geliebt,  usw."     See  Der  junge  Goethe, 
Ed.  2,  III,  198. 

64  For  a  discussion  of   "Nonnenpoesie"   see   Heinrich   Kraeger,    "Johann 
Martin    Millers    Gedichte."     Bremen,    1892.     Cf.    Miller's    "Siegwart.    Eine 
Klostergeschichte."     Stuttgart,  1844,  II,  p.  95;  Stelzer,  " Christinchen "  (1780) 
in  Taschenbuchfiir  Dichter  und  Dichterfreunde,  XI,  86f.;  Thiimmel,  "Der  heilige 
Kilian."     Herausgegeben    von    F.    F.    Hempel.    Leipzig,    1818;    Sprickmann, 
"Das  Neujahrsgeschenk,  Eine  Klosteranekdote,"  in  Deutsches  Museum,  1776*. 
p.  ?88f ;  etc. 


of  the  laws  and  by  means  of  perjury  the  seducer  was  generally 
able  to  escape  punishment.  One  contributor  to  Schlozer's 
Brief wechsel  complains  that  there  are  so  many  who  say  "Bec- 
caria  this,  and  Beccaria  that,  but  no  one  recommends  that 
the  seducer  be  punished  severely,  very  severely."65  Another 
says :  "  Punish  the  instigator  of  the  whole  trouble,  who  seduces 
innocence  and  dishonors  virtue,  for  whoever  wishes  to  eradi- 
cate an  evil  must  begin  at  the  very  source."66  Hess  ironically 
suggested  that  a  "fiery  youth  whose  whole  nervous  system 
becomes  so  tense  when  he  sees  a  beautiful  girl  that  even 
Socrates  under  similar  conditions  would  have  been  compelled 
to  struggle  with  a  wavering  conscience — such  a  youth  shall, 
if  he  cannot  pay  a  fine,  be  publicly  flogged  because  he  has 
yielded  to  his  temperament."67  Others,  and  there  were  not  a 
few,  wanted  to  force  the  seducer  to  marry  the  girl.68  Still 
others  insisted  that  he  must  support  the  unmarried  mother 
and  his  illegitimate  child.  This  was  to  be  done  directly  or 
indirectly  through  taxation.69  One  frequently  meets  with 
the  suggestion  that  all  bachelors  should  be  taxed,  the  proceeds 
of  the  tax  to  go  to  the  support  of  institutions  which  were  to 
care  for  the  unmarried  mother  and  her  child.  This  could  be 
an  income  tax,  or  the  bachelor's  estate  would  automatically 
go  to  the  state  upon  his  death.  Hippel,  himself  a  bachelor  for 
life,  recommended  that  from  one  tenth  to  one  sixth  of  the 
estate  of  every  bachelor  be  turned  over  to  asylums  for  the 
poor.70 

Nicolai  and  his  staff  vehemently  opposed  the  suggestion 
that  the  seducer  be  forced  to  marry  the  unfortunate  girl,  for 
"such  marriages  would  always  be  unhappy  and  it  would  there- 
fore be  a  medicine  which  would  be  worse  than  the  disease."71 

Erich  Schmidt  in  his  "Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner,  Goethes 

«5  xi,  470. 

68  Idem,  X,  354- 

67  "Freymiithige  Gedanken,"  p.  61. 

**Allgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek,  62,  70;  idem,  113,  ssf.;  "Drei  Preisschrif- 
ten,"  p.  86.;  etc. 

69  "Drei  Preisschriften,"  p.  149;  List,  loc.  cit.,  p.  50;  Hermes,  "Sophiens 
Reise,"  p.  619;  etc. 

70  "Sammtliche  Werke,"  V,  2?f. 

nAllgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek,  113,  ssf.;  62,  7of. 


67 

Jugendgenosse"  pointed  out  that  the  establishment  of  found- 
ling houses  was  equally  favored  and  opposed.72  The  most 
elaborate  discussion  of  the  subject  is  by  Carl  Friedrich  Meiss- 
ner  in  two  essays  entitled  "Zwo  Abhandlungen  liber  die 
Frage:  Sind  die  Findel-Hauser  vorteilhaft  oder  schadlich?"73 
Meissner  was  decidedly  opposed  to  their  establishment.  He 
gives  a  brief  history  of  foundling-houses  in  Greece  and  Italy, 
and  later  of  those  in  Paris  and  London,  to  show  how  miserably 
they  had  failed.  He  then  gives  several  reasons  why  he  is 
opposed  to  them.  First,  they  are  very  expensive,  second,  they 
fail  in  the  object  of  their  establishment,  namely  the  salvation 
of  poor  children,  and  third,  they  cause  great  harm  in  that  they 
increase  and  encourage  illegitimacy.  He  argues  that  found- 
ling-houses really  do  increase  illegitimacy  and  that  the  mor- 
tality of  the  foundlings  is  so  high  that  the  houses  may  be 
called  "Mordergruben."  Pfeil,  in  his  prize  essay,  asserted 
that  nine-tenths  of  the  children  put  into  these  institutions 
died  in  infancy.74  A  contributor  to  Schlozer's  Briefwechsel 
reported  that  in  Cassel,  of  the  thirty-six  children  received  in 
the  local  foundling-house,  thirty-two  died.75  Schlozer  asserted 
that  he  knew  many  men  who  were  well  able  to  marry,  "but 
they  keep  concubines  (Menscher)  and  as  soon  as  one  of  these 
gives  birth  to  a  child  it  is  taken  to  a  foundling-house,  where  in 
a  few  weeks  it  dies."  That  the  foundling-house  is  an  insuffi- 
cient means  to  stop  unmarried  motherhood,  or  infanticide, 
is  a  stereotyped  assertion  of  the  period.76  Pastor  Diirr  in 
a  report  to  the  Gottingen  Gelehrten  Anzeigen  claimed  that 
the  "mortality  of  children  has  greatly  increased  in  the  last 
twenty  years  and  with  it  the  number  of  illegitimate  children."77 
Hess,  however,  was  in  favor  of  these  institutions.78  So  too 

7S  See  page  92f. 

73  Gottingen,  1779. 

74  "Drei  Preisschriften,"  p.  3  if. 
™  VIII,  44. 

78  See  Allgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek,  54,  in;  idem,  54,  113;  idem,  88,  Qif.; 
idem,  113,  5$f.;  Pestalozzi  in  his  essay,  p.  38 if.;  Johann  Peter  Siissmilch,  "Die 
gottliche  Ordnung."  Berlin,  1765,  part  i,  p.  193;  Klippstein  in  the  prize 
essay,  p.  89;  Kreuzfeld,  p.  12 if.,  etc. 

77"Zwo  Abhandlungen,"  p.  74. 

78  "Freymiithige  Gedanken,"  p.  38f. 


68 


Iselin  and  J.  G.  Schlosser.79     But   they  belonged  to  the  mi- 
nority. 

All  these  manifold  suggestions  for  the  amelioration  or  eradi- 
cation of  evils  were  consistently  opposed  by  Moser  at  every 
step  of  the  agitation.  "I  am  not  so  sure,"  he  says  on  one 
occasion,  "that  the  government  is  in  duty  bound  to  seek  out 
the  causes  of  crimes  in  order  to  prevent  their  repetition.  Ac- 
cording to  my  opinion  the  government  must  always  look  upon 
the  consequence  of  crime  and  let  the  rest  alone.  Even  if 
hundreds  of  criminals  should  commit  suicide  in  prison  to  evade 
the  wheel  or  the  gallows,  that  would  be  no  reason  for  the 
government  to  let  a  single  criminal  go  unpunished.  What 
would  happen  if  a  general,  in  order  to  prevent  desertion,  should 
excuse  even  the  smallest  causes  which  lead  to  this  action? 
He  must  punish  everything  with  equal  severity — the  perjury 
of  which  a  soldier  is  guilty  when  he  deserts  the  army,  and  the 
soldier  who  sleeps  at  his  post,  even  if  the  cause  was  the  exces- 
sive heat  of  the  preceding  day."80 

79  Iselin  in  an  essay  "Ueber  den  Kindermord,"  in  part  4  of  Ephemeriden  der 
Menschheit,  1778.     Schlosser  in  "  Kleine  Schriften,"  IV,  53. 

80  "  Patriotische  Phantasien,"  V,  iopf. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  LITERARY  REFLEX  OF  THE  REVOLT  IN  THE  STORM  AND 
STRESS   PERIOD 

"The  end  and  aim  of  all  literature,"  said  Matthew  Arnold, 
"if  one  considers  it  attentively,  is,  in  truth,  nothing  but  a 
criticism  of  life.  .  .  .  The  action  of  two  distinct  factors  can 
be  traced  in  any  work  of  creative  literature,  the  personality 
of  the  author,  and  the  mental  atmosphere  of  the  age."  Alfred 
Freiherr  von  Berger  says  that  "the  subjects  of  the  drama  are 
typical  human  experiences.  ...  I  could  point  out  this  char- 
acteristic of  genuinely  dramatic  material  in  numberless 
literary  productions.  In  every  man  there  is  a  piece  of  Othello, 
every  woman  has  looked  at  her  husband  through  Desdemona 
eyes,  in  every  marriage  there  occur  Othello  scenes,  tempered 
and  modified  of  course,  every  man  who  is  an  'aimless,  restless 
monster,'  like  Faust,  has  enjoyed  the  fragrance  of  maiden- 
hood's flower,  and  then  has  deceived  the  hope  he  has  awakened. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  there  should  be  seduction,  infanticide 
or  even  death,  but  no  one  can  deny  that  he  has  experienced 
some  part  of  the  Faust-Gretchen  tragedy  in  one  way  or  an- 
other."1 

The  universality  of  the  tragedy  of  unmarried  motherhood 
has  always  justified  its  poetic  treatment.  But  the  per- 
meation of  the  mental  atmosphere  of  the  last  three  decades  of 
the  eighteenth  century  with  sympathy  for  the  unfortunate 
girl  who  was  compelled  by  circumstances  to  get  rid  of  her 
child,  explains  the  extensive  use  of  the  theme  in  the  imagi- 
native literature  of  the  time.  It  is  important  to  note  that  too 
much  emphasis  has  been  placed  by  critics  on  the  individual 
experience  of  writers  as  being  the  sole  source  for  the  inspiration 
of  their  literary  productions.  Undoubtedly  Burger's  experi- 
ences with  the  Leonhard  girls  played  a  part  in  the  production 
of  "Des  Pfarrers  Tochter  von  Taubenhain,"  while  Sprick- 

1 "  Dramaturgische  Vortrage."     Wien,  1891,  pp.  35,  38. 

69 


70 

mann's  affair  with  a  certain  lady  for  whom  Burger  suggested 
a  place  of  refuge  in  part  inspired  him  to  write  his  poems  and 
dramatic  sketches.  One  can  imagine  that  Maler  Miiller's 
desertion  of  Charlotte  Karner  influenced  his  ballad  "Das 
braune  Fraulein"  and  his  idyls  "Das  Nusskernen"  and  "Die 
Schaafschur,"  just  as  Wagner's  "Die  Kindermorderinn," 
Lenz's  dramas  "Die  Soldaten"  and  "Der  Hofmeister,"  as 
well  as  his  novelette  "Zerbin,"  may  have  been  influenced  by 
the  experience  of  the  elder  von  Kleist,  whom  Lenz  tutored, 
with  a  girl  in  Strassburg.  Friederike  Brion  undoubtedly 
gave  Goethe  the  inspiration  for  the  theme  of  the  deserted 
girl  in  "Clavigo,"  "Gotz,"  "Stella"  and  above  all  in 
"Faust."  But  even  in  these  cases  one  cannot  say  that 
the  personal  experience  of  the  writers  furnished  the  sole 
source  of  the  literary  production.  The  preacher's  daughter 
in  Burger's  poem  cannot  be  identified  with  either  of  the 
Leonhard  girls.  Burger's  interest  in  the  theme  of  infanticide 
dates  back  to  1772,  when  he  worked  out  an  abstract  of  a  case 
of  infanticide.2  The  deserted  girl  and  the  infanticide  in 
Miiller's  productions  is  not  Charlotte  Karner.  Ida  in  Sprick- 
mann's  poem  is  not  the  court-lady,  neither  Gustchen,  Marie 
nor  Evchen  can  be  said  to  be  the  deserted  sweetheart  of  the 
elder  von  Kleist,  Gretchen  in  "Faust"  certainly  is  not  Friede- 
rike. And  then  how  should  we  account  for  the  productions 
of  Schiller,  Hippel,  Hermes,  A.  G.  Meissner,  Gemmingen  and 
others,  to  whose  personal  experience  we  can  trace  no  definite 
relationship  with  any  specific  case  of  unmarried  motherhood? 
An  analysis  of  the  literature  of  the  period  will  prove  that 
the  great  predilection  for  the  theme  is  for  the  most  part  a 
reflex  of  the  revolt  discussed  in  the  preceding  chapter.  And 
one  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  the  literature  is  its 
didacticism.  Indeed  the  revolt  inherently  contained  this 
element.  We  have  seen  how  the  theory  which  sought  to 
prevent  crimes  by  terrible  punishments  was  displaced  by  a 
new  theory  which  taught  that  crimes  are  best  prevented  by 
seeking  out  and  eliminating  their  causes.  In  one  respect,  at 
least,  both  theories  agreed,  in  that  both  sought  to  prevent. 

1  See  Karl  Goedeke:  "  Burger  in  Gottingen  und  Gelliehausen,"  p.  92. 


71 

The  difference  in  the  theories  lies  in  the  method  of  prevention. 
On  the  old  theory,  girls  were  warned  by  letting  them  see  what 
terrible  penalties  were  imposed  for  unmarried  motherhood, 
on  the  new  theory,  by  showing  in  detail  how  the  tragedy  of 
infanticide  developed  and  ended. 

English  writers  led  the  way  in  this  attempt  to  warn  pro- 
spective criminals.  George  Lillo  and  Edward  Moore  did  but 
illustrate  the  "Abschreckungstheorie."  Barnwell  in  the 
former's  "George  Barnwell"  is  perverted  by  Millwood  from  a 
virtuous  youth  into  a  thief  and  murderer.  In  the  last  scene 
the  "crushed"  public  sees  the  gallows  on  the  stage  and  the 
young  moralist  Trueman  warns : 

With  bleeding  hearts  and  weeping  eyes  we  show 
A  humane  gen'rous  sense  of  others'  woe; 
Unless  we  mark  what  drew  their  ruin  on, 
And  by  avoiding  that  prevent  our  own. 

Moore  too,  in  "The  Gamester,"  moralizes:  "let  frailer  minds 
take  warning." 

The  Germans,  who  for  centuries  had  been  good  imitators, 
followed  the  example  of  their  English  cousins.  Wagner  uses 
the  civil  law  book  at  the  end  of  "Die  Kindermorderinn  "  with 
no  other  purpose  than  to  warn  prospective  unmarried  mothers 
of  the  inexorableness  of  the  law.  That  too  is  the  object  of 
the  warning  in  Matthias  Claudius'  "Schonheit  und  Unschuld. 
Ein  Sermon  an  die  Madchen."  After  discussing  the  virtues 
of  the  fair  sex  and  how  they  are  usually  lost,  the  writer  ex- 
claims: "Flee  the  man  who  makes  you  believe  that  chastity 
and  virtue  are  nonsense  and  superstition!  Even  if  he  were 
dressed  in  gold  and  pearls  he  is  a  rascal,  a  poisonous  rattle- 
snake."3 Blumauer's  poem  "Lehren  an  ein  Madchen"  con- 
tains a  similar  warning. 

Drum  hiite  dich  vor  dieser  Pest, 
Und  so  ein  Mann  sich  finden  lasst, 
Der  dein  begehrt,  so  sehe  nicht 
Dem  Freyer  bios  nur  in's  Gesicht: 

'"Sammtliche  Werke  des  Wandsbecker  Boten."     Gotha,  1882,  I, 


72 

Denn  wiss,  dass  oft  ein  boser  Mann 
In  Engelslarve  stecken  kann.4 

Burger  in  "Hummel-Lied"  compares  maidens  to  flowers  and 
boys  to  bumble  bees  and  then  warns 

Ihr  Magdlein  mogt  euch  huten!5 

Maler  Miiller  devotes  the  first  six  stanzas  of  "Das  braune 
Fraulein"  to  warning  girls,  lest  they  meet  with  the  fate  of 
the  brown  maiden.  The  fourth  stanza  reads 

Es  beb'  dein  junges  Herzchen 
Verborgen  jeder  List; 
Dein  junges  fiihlend  Herzchen 
Das  ganz  nur  Unschuld  ist.6 

Frequently  the  warning  is  placed  at  the  end  of  the  poem 
to  serve  as  a  sort  of  moral.  Fr.  Schmit  attributes  the  fall 
of  Molly  in  "Bey  Molly's  Grab"  to  her  innocence  and  inex- 
perience with  the  ways  of  the  world.  The  poem  concludes 

Kein  Madchen  seh  mit  stolzem  Richterblicke 
Auf  die  Gef allene  herab ! 

Mit  Zittern  denkt  an  die  Gefahren,  die  euch  drohn, 
Und  weint  bey  ihrem  friihen  Grab.7 

The  most  frightful  example  of  the  motif  of  warning  in  the 
fiction  of  the  period  is  Thummers  story,  in  "Die  Reise  in  die 
mittaglichen  Provinzen  von  Frankreich,"  of  a  girl  whose  ugli- 
ness was  made  beautiful  by  substituting  for  her  own  hair  and 
teeth  those  of  an  infanticide,  whose  body  after  her  execution 
came  into  the  hands  of  her  guardian,  a^  physician.  Thummel 
says:  "The  girl  only  lacked  beautiful  hair  and  good  teeth  to 
change  her  entire  appearance.  He  [the  physician]  accordingly 
took  the  dark  hair  and  the  white  teeth  of  the  decapitated 
infanticide  and  decorated  his  foster  daughter  with  the  brown 
locks  which  so  picturesquely  roll  down  her  white  neck,  and 

4  "  Aloys  Blumauer's  sammtliche  Werke."     Konigsberg,  1827,  II,  73ff. 

6  "Sammtliche  Werke,"  Gottingen,  1829,  II,  i6of. 

8  See  "Stunner  und  Dranger."     Hrsg.  von  A.  Sauer,  III,  266ff. 

7  Taschenbuch  fur  Dichter  und  Dichterfreunde,  II,  6iff. 


73 

substituted  for  the  black  pegs  in  her  mouth  teeth  of  pure 
pearl.  Did  he  do  the  girl  an  injustice?  .  .  .  No,  he  not  only 
made  the  girl  more  beautiful  than  she  was  before,  but  he 
guaranteed  her  virtue.  .  .  .  What  warning  could  protect  an 
innocent  girl  more  effectively  against  the  first  false  step  than 
the  heritage  of  one  who  had  fallen  so  low?"8 

Didacticism  is  no  less  common  in  the  dramas  of  the  period. 
Erich  Schmidt  would  be  quite  right  in  condemning  the  use  of 
so  much  crass  realism  were  it  not  for  the  conscious  attempt  to 
apply  the  "Abschreckungstheorie."  That  it  was  conscious 
is  proved  by  Wagner's  defense  of  the  first  version  of  "Die 
Kindermorderinn "  when  he  published  the  revised  version 
under  the  title  "Evchen  Humbrecht,  oder,  Ihr  Mutter  hiitet 
Euch."  "To  awaken  vile  thoughts  is  only  permitted  if  one 
wishes  to  use  means  to  make  vice  hateful  and  abominable," 
Wagner  asserted.  Klinger  also  found  it  necessary  to  defend 
his  rather  free  use  of  vulgarity.  While  his  drama  "Das 
leidende  Weib"  has  nothing  directly  to  do  with  our  subject, 
his  remarks  indicate  why  he  used  so  much  crass  realism  in  his 
"Fausts  Leben,  Thaten  und  Hollenfahrt,"  realism  which  is  so 
gross  at  times  that  it  is  unreadable.  "I  wanted  to  depict  the 
value  of  virtue  by  example  and  action,"  he  says,  u  I  wanted  to 
make  the  reader  feel  it  and  to  teach  how  remorse  and  punish- 
ment avenge  its  loss."9 

Burger  too  was  possessed  of  the  same  idea  of  warning  or 
frightening.  In  a  letter  dated  November  13,  1773,  to  Boie  he 
tells  of  a  drama  which  he  is  going  to  write:  "I  am  brooding 
over  a  mighty  production,  which  is  nothing  less  than  a  tragedy 
from  civil  life.  The  plan  is  made,  my  own  invention,  and  a 
few  scenes  have  been  written  down — scenes  which  will  make 
your  hair  stand  on  end."10  And  Sprickmann  plans  a  drama 
in  which  the  parents  of  an  illegitimate  child  meet  their  doom 

8  "Sammtliche  Werke."     Leipzig,  1839,  VI,  95ff. 

9  For  Wagner's  whole  defense  see  Erich  Schmidt,  "Heinrich  Leopold  Wag- 
ner," p.  97.     For  Klinger's  defense  see  Max  Rieger,  "Klinger  in  der  Sturm  und 
Drangperiode."     Darmstadt,  1880,  I,  3771. 

10  That  the  poet  had  a  drama  on  infanticide  in  mind  in  the  quotation  given  here 
is  proved  by  his  assertion  to  Boie  when  the  latter  referred  to  Wagner's  "Die 
Kindermorderinn":  "Der  Titel  frappirt  mich,  weil  ich  ein  dramatisches  Siijet 
unter  eben  dem  Titel  lang  im  Busen  herumgetragen  habe."     As 'far  as  we  know, 
Burger  never  thought  of  writing  a  drama  on  any  other  subject. 


74 

in  the  last  scene,  the  mother  and  father  committing  suicide, 
while  the  innocent  child  sends  the  terrified  audience  home  by 
its  incessant  crying  when  the  curtain  falls.11 

The  theme  of  the  unmarried  mother  lends  itself  readily  to 
realistic  detail  and  the  placing  of  particular  emphasis  on  these 
elements  explains  largely  why  so  much  of  the  literature  on  the 
unmarried  mother,  written  at  this  time,  did  not  live.  Practi- 
cally all  of  the  writers  were  able  by  their  writings  to  win  sym- 
pathy for  the  unmarried  mother.  They  thus  fulfilled  the 
first  requirement  of  tragedy,  to  excite  pity.  But  in  the  ful- 
fillment of  the  second  requirement,  the  instillation  of  fear, 
most  of  them  failed  utterly.  They  failed  to  distinguish  be- 
tween horror  and  fear.  Or  perhaps  it  were  better  to  say 
that  they  did  not  wish  to  distinguish  between  the  two.  I  am 
inclined  to  believe  the  writers  of  the  period  wished  to  arouse 
extreme  horror  as  well  as  utter  disgust  for  those  things  which 
led  up  to  infanticide.  That  explains  the  portrayal  of  seduc- 
tion and  infanticide  itself,  as  well  as  the  immediate  circum- 
stances surrounding  them,  with  the  most  minute  detail. 

Burger  particularly  delighted  in  detailed  description  of  the 
immediate  circumstances  attendant  on  seduction,  and  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  he  put  into  this  description  an  ele- 
ment of  didacticism.  In  "Des  Pfarrers  Tochter  von  Tauben- 
hain"  he  describes  the  seduction  of  Rosette  by  the  young 
squire  of  Falkenstein. 

Er  zog  sie  zur  Laube,  so  duster  und  still, 

Von  bltihenden  Bohnen  umdiiftet. 

Da  pocht'  ihr  das  Herzchen,  da  schwoll  ihr  die  Brust; 

Da  wurde  vom  gluhenden  Hauche  der  Lust 

Die  Unschuld  zu  Tode  vergiftet.  .  .  . 

Bald,  als  auf  duftendem  Bohnenbeet 
Die  rothlichen  Blumen  verbluhten, 

Da  wurde  dem  Madchen  so  libel  und  weh; 
******** 

Da  wurde  dem  Madchen  das  Briistchen  zu  voll, 
Das  seidene  Rockchen  zu  enge.12 

11  See  A.  Sauer  in  introduction  to  "Sturmer  und  Dranger,"  I,  46. 
12 " Sammtliche  Werke,"  II,  32f.     Cf.  also  his  poem  "Der  wohlgesinnte 
Liebhaber,"  idem,  II,  2i4f. 


75 

Wagner  in  "Die  Kindermorderinn "  goes  so  far  as  to  put 
rape  on  the  stage.  Groningseck,  after  putting  the  mother  of 
Evchen  to  sleep  by  means  of  a  potion,  tries  to  embrace  the 
girl.  She  resists  and  flees  into  the  adjoining  room,  shrieking: 
"Mother!  Mother!  I  am  lost."  Groningseck  pursues  her, 
closes  the  door  behind  him,  and  the  noise  in  the  room  lets  the 
spectator  guess  the  rest.  A  few  minutes  later  Evchen  dashes 
from  the  room  with  the  announcement:  "Mother!  unnatural 
mother!  sleep,  .  .  .  sleep  forever!  ...  for  your  daughter 
has  been  made  a  harlot."13 

It  must  not  be  assumed,  however,  that  all  the  poets  of  the 
period  of  Storm  and  Stress  portrayed  seduction  with  such 
realistic  detail.  Goethe  and  Schiller  in  dealing  with  this 
theme  proved  themselves  better  artists.  Instead  of  detailed 
description  of  seduction  and  the  circumstances  preceding  and 
following  it,  they  merely  allude  to  it.  Luise  in  Schiller's 
"Die  Kindesmorderin  "  says 

Weh!  vom  Arm  des  falschen  Manns  umwunden 
Schlief  Luisens  Tugend  ein.14 

In  Goethe's  "Faust"  Gretchen,  after  a  happy  tryst  with 
Faust,  tells  him  she  would  gladly  leave  the  door  unbolted  if 
her  mother  slept  more  soundly.15  Faust  gives  her  the  sleep- 
ing-potion and  then  departs.  In  the  scene  "Am  Brunnen" 
we  discover  indirectly  that  the  seduction  has  taken  place  and 

13  Act  I.     Erich  Schmidt  asserted  that  this  act  was  absolutely  impossible  on 
the  stage.     A.  Sauer  and  others  agreed  with  him.     Karl  Freye  in  the  intro- 
duction to  "Sturm  und  Drang,"  I,  Iv,  denied  this  impossibility. 

14  "Schiller's  Samtliche  Werke."     Sakular  Ausgabe,  I,  3off. 

16  Critics  have  questioned  Gretchen's  innocence  in  giving  Faust  permission 
to  come  to  her  room  before  marriage.  But  it  is  worth  remembering  that  there 
still  existed  in  different  parts  of  Germany,  when  Goethe  wrote  his  drama,  a  widely 
sanctioned  custom,  the  survival  of  a  sort  of  trial  marriage  called  "  Probenacht." 
According  to  this  custom,  which  only  existed  among  the  lower  classes,  girls 
regularly  accorded  to  their  favored  wooer  the  privileges  of  a  husband.  If  con- 
ception resulted  and  the  lover  was  honorable,  legal  marriage  followed.  The 
danger  of  the  custom  lay  in  the  lover's  being  of  a  frivolous  or  vicious  mind  and 
his  refusal  to  accept  the  social  consequences  of  his  paternity.  Faust  proved  to 
be  a  lover  of  the  latter  type — hence  the  tragedy  of  Gretchen.  A  lengthy  dis- 
cussion of  the  custom  is  F.  C.  J.  Fischer's  "Ueber  die  Probenachte  der  teutschen 
Bauernmadchen,"  Berlin,  1780.  The  essay  is  reprinted  in  J.  Scheible,  "Dat 
Schaltjahr,"  Stuttgart,  1846,  II,  68iff.,  Ill,  266ff.,  438ff. 


76 

that  Gretchen  is  a  prospective  mother.     The  poet  lets  Bar- 
belchen  tell  of  the  fall  of  a  playmate  and  Gretchen 's  simple 

Und  bin  nun  selbst  der  Siinde  bloss! 

tells  the  whole  story. 

While  Burger  liked  to  portray  the  crass  realism  in  seduction, 
Sprickmann  had  a  predilection  for  the  horrors  attendant  upon 
the  commission  of  infanticide.  His  first  poem  on  infanticide 
"Ida"  is  the  best  example.  Humfried,  who  has  seduced  Ida, 
deserts  her  for  another  girl,  Luitberga.  In  a  forest  cavern 
the  unfortunate  girl  gives  birth  to  her  illegitimate  child. 
While  she  is  cursing  her  fate,  Humfried  is  driven,  by  his  con- 
science, out  into  the  night  to  find  peace.  On  this  sojourn  he 
sees  a  light  in  the  distance,  and  going  to  the  place  whence  it 
comes,  he  finds  Ida  and  the  child  on  the  straw.  For  a  moment 
all  is  silent  and  then  Ida  breaks  out  in  her  fury : 

"  Herzliebster,  wo  bist  du? 
Sieh!  bist  ja  nun  Vater! — Wo  bist  du? 
Da  nimm  es,  nimm's  Bubchen  in  Armen! 

Sieh,  's  will  dich  lieben!  so  habe  doch  Erbarmen! 
********* 

Da,  nimm's!  's  will   lieben  dich  ja! 

Da  Humfried!— Holle!— Humfried's  du! 

Und  habe  dich  im  Schoos?— Zum  Teufel!— Hu!— Hu!— " 

O  Himmel!  Mit  wutender  Macht 

Geschleudert  am  Felsen,  zerkracht — 

Des  armen  Kindes  zart  Gebein. 
******** 

Dess  erwacht  die  Mutter  aus  ihrer  Wut, 

Fallt  hin  iiber's  Kind,  und  leckt  von  der  Stirne 

Ihm  Blut  und  Gehirne, 

Und  rauft  sich  das  Haar  und  schlagt  sich  das  Blut 

Mit  rasender  Faust  aus  den  Briisten.16 

Wagner  even  put  infanticide  on  the  stage.     In  the  last  act 

16  Deutsches  Museum,  i???1,  p.  izoff.  Sprickmann  must  have  delighted  in 
portraying  such  scenes  for  we  find  one  similar  to  the  above  in  his  dramatic 
sketch  "Horry"  in  Deutsches  Museum,  I7781,  p.  5f.  Cf.  also  A.  G.  Meissner, 
"Die  Morderin"  in  Deutsches  Museum,  I7791.  379ff.;  Lenz's  "Zerbin"  in  the 
same  magazine,  I7761,  ipsf.;  etc. 


77 

of  "Die  Kindermorderinn  "  Evchen  takes  a  hair  needle 
and  stabs  her  child  in  the  temple.  In  order  not  to  hear  the 
screaming  of  the  child  she  sings 

Eya  Pupeya! 

Schlaf  Kindlein!  schlaf  wohl! 

Schlaf  ewig  wohl! 

Ha  ha  ha,  ha  ha! 

When  the  child  is  dead  she  kisses  away  the  blood  from  its 
temple  while  she  soliloquizes:  "What  is  that? — sweet!  very 
sweet!  but  afterwards  bitter — ha,  now  I  recognize  it — blood 
of  my  own  child!" 

In  the  best  dramatic  literature  one  fails  to  find  a  single 
production  in  which  infanticide  is  put  on  the  stage.  One 
recalls  that  Horace  objected  to  Medea  killing  her  children  on 
the  stage  in  the  presence  of  the  spectators.  The  explanation 
for  this  aversion  to  seeing  infanticide  on  the  stage  is  found  in 
the  aversion  which  society  has  for  the  crime  in  real  life.  The 
commission  of  the  act  by  the  mother  is  contrary  to  natural 
law.  From  a  purely  artistic  standpoint  an  allusion  to  the 
act  is  quite  enough  to  set  the  imagination  to  work  and  so 
produces  the  fear  required  by  tragedy.  The  poem  by  Schiller 
lets  Luise  recall  the  vows  of  Joseph.  This  excites  hatred  for 
her  unfaithful  lover,  and  Luise  tells  how  the  feeling  affected 
her: 

Seine  Eide  donnern  aus  dem  Grabe  wieder, 

Ewig,  ewig  wiirgt  sein  Meineid  fort, 

Ewig — hier  umstrickte  mich  die  Hyder — 

Und  vollendet  war  der  Mord. 

Influenced  by  Meissner  and  Sprickmann,  Schiller  then  goes 
on  to  give  a  more  minute  description  of  the  infanticide  proper 
and  what  followed  it. 

Seht!  da  lag's  entseelt  zu  meinen  Fussen — 
Kalt  hinstarrend,  mit  verworrnem  Sinn 
Sah  ich  seines  Blutes  Strome  fliessen, 
Und  mein  Leben  floss  mit  ihm  dahin — . 

Gemmingen    in    "Der   deutsche    Hausvater,"    which    was 


78 

popular  on  the  German  stage  for  twenty-five  years,17  resorts 
to  a  clever  device  to  temper  the  terribleness  of  infanticide. 
In  the  first  act  he  has  Lotte  write  to  Karl:  "If  Karl  should 
desert  me,  then,  terrible  as  it  is,  I  would  with  my  own  hands 
murder  the  child,  which  I  shall  have  by  him,  and  that  would 
be  maternal  kindness;  then  I  would  let  them  execute  me  pub- 
licly." Later  in  the  fourth  act  Karl  comes  to  take  leave  of 
Lotte.  His  mission,  which  is  difficult  enough  in  itself,  is  only 
made  more  difficult  by  the  artist,  who  suddenly  broaches  the 
suitability  of  infanticide  for  plastic  art.  He  says:  "The 
artists  of  antiquity  knew  how  to  appeal  to  their  nation  so 
effectively:  I  think  we  could  do  that  too  if  we  depicted  sub- 
jects which  concern  each  one  particularly.  For  instance, 
there  is  a  most  terrible  thing,  infanticide.  According  to  my 
feeling,  I  know  of  nothing  more  terrible  in  all  nature."  Then 
by  way  of  emphasizing  his  thought  the  artist  produces  a  series 
of  sketches  of  the  successive  steps  in  the  career  of  an  unmarried 
mother  who  is  driven  by  force  of  circumstances  to  kill  her 
child.  On  the  first  sketch t  here  is  "  an  unfortunate  girl  who  has 
just  killed  her  child."  "Notice  the  despair  expressed  by  that 
one  line.  Do  you  feel  that,  Count?  "  he  asks  Karl.  The  latter 
answers:  "Yes,  inexpressibly."  He  saw  in  the  picture  all 
the  tragic  possibilities  for  Lottchen,  whom  he  had  got  with 
child  and  of  whom  he  had  come  to  take  leave  forever.  The 
artist  proceeds:  "And  this  second  sketch.  There  she  lies 
now,  the  mother,  the  very  picture  of  misfortune,  the  dead 
child  pressed  to  her  bosom.  She  doesn't  want  to  leave  it  after 
all.  And  here  the  guard,  who  is  about  to  take  her  to  court, 
and  there  the  poor  old  father,  who  in  despair  is  going  to.  .  .  ." 
At  this  point  Lotte  faints  and  the  conversation  is  interrupted. 
By  bringing  in  the  sketches  Gemmingen  divides  the  interest 
of  the  reader.  If  he  had  simply  let  the  artist  tell  of  the  tragic 
possibilities  of  Lotte's  condition  his  description  of  the  infan- 
ticide would  have  called  forth  disgust  and  horror  only.  As  it 
is,  he  appeals  to  the  emotion  of  fear  and  intensifies  our  pity  for 
the  naive  girl.  A  reviewer  in  the  Litter atur  und  Theater 
Zeitung  records  the  fact  that  this  method  of  treating  the  theme 

17  Euphorion,  XIII,  791. 


79 

was  very  effective  on  the  stage.  The  reviewer  after  discussing 
the  merits  of  the  drama  in  general,  states  that  this  scene  was 
one  of  two  which  always  gained  the  greatest  applause.18 

Goethe,  too,  the  greatest  literary  artist  of  the  time,  veils  the 
horrible  details.  Gretchen  is  in  prison  before  we  know  that 
she  has  killed  her  child.  The  modern  reader  who  does  not 
know  of  the  laws  in  regard  to  the  unmarried  mother  of  that 
time  would  be  justified  in  asking:  Why  is  Gretchen  in  prison? 
Is  it  because  she  virtually  murdered  her  mother?  No,  there 
is  nothing  to  indicate  that  she  was  arrested  and  later  con- 
demned to  die  because  of  this  crime.  She  was  arrested  be- 
cause she  was  an  unmarried  mother.  Even  if  she  had  not 
murdered  her  child  she  would  have  suffered  the  penalty  of 
death,  for  the  law  inflicted  that  equally  for  concealment  of 
pregnancy,  concealment  of  child-birth  and  infanticide.  Any 
one  of  these  three  would  have  been  sufficient  to  convict  her. 
The  reader  of  "Faust"  knows  long  before  Gretchen  is  in 
prison  that  she  is  trying  to  hide  her  condition,  he  therefore 
knows  too  that  when  she  is  found  out  she  will  be  placed  in 
prison.  It  was  easy  for  Goethe's  contemporaries  to  under- 
stand why  she  was  in  prison  even  before  they  learned  that  she 
had  killed  her  child.  The  girl's  crime  is  her  state  of  unmarried 
motherhood  and  the  consequent  infanticide,  not  merely  the 
killing  of  the  child. 

This  explains  why  Gretchen  only  mentions  the  killing  of  her 
child  as  one  of  a  whole  series  of  acts  which  led  up  to  her  arrest 
and  conviction.  In  her  ravings  she  reviews  these  deeds. 
There  were  the  happy  days  of  love-making,  the  sleep-potion 
for  the  mother,  the  contempt  of  the  world  and  the  church, 
the  death  of  Valentine  and  the  murder  of  her  child.  And 
when  she  comes  to  the  latter  there  is  no  minute  description, 
there  is  only  a  direction  to  Faust  to  go  and  rescue  the  poor 
babe. 

Geschwind !     Geschwind ! 
Rette  dein  armes  Kind. 
Fort!     Immer  den  Weg 

18  See  Casar  Flaischlen,  "Otto  Heinrich  Freiherr  von  Gemmingen.  Mit 
einer  Vorstudie  liber  Diderot  als  Dramatiker."  Stuttgart,  1890,  p.  i04f. 


80 

Am  Bach  hinauf, 

Uber  den  Steg 

In  den  Wald  hinein, 

Links,  wo  die  Planke  steht, 

Im  Teich. 

Pass  es  nur  gleich! 

Es  will  sich  heben 

Es  zappelt  noch! 

Rette!     rette! 

The  imagination  is  set  to  work  and  when  she  has  told  Faust 
of  the  fate  of  their  child  she  hurries  on  and  the  reader  fears 
for  her  end. 

The  revolt  against  the  methods  of  punishing  the  unmarried 
mother  who  killed  her  child  was  preceded  by  a  differentiation 
between  the  harlot  and  the  girl  who  became  an  infanticide  by 
force  of  circumstances.  And  the  sympathy  of  this  period 
was  lavished  only  on  the  unmarried  mother  of  the  latter  type. 
It  was  believed  that  some  girls  intentionally  practiced  prosti- 
tution without  being  compelled  to  do  so.  Some  writers  even 
refused  to  concede  that  girls  became  mothers  unmarried 
involuntarily.  Runde,  an  ardent  defender  of  capital  punish- 
ment, believed  that  every  infanticide  was  really  a  vicious 
harlot.  He  asserted  that  in  no  case  did  human  nature  sink 
to  so  low  a  level  as  in  the  commission  of  this  deed.19  Of 
course  no  writer  went  so  far  as  to  justify  the  act.  Pfeil  for 
instance,  one  of  the  ardent  defenders  of  the  unmarried  mother, 
calls  infanticide  the  most  unnatural,  the  most  despicable  of  all 
crimes.20  Schummel  in  "  Empfmdsame  Reisen  durch  Deutsch- 
land,"  in  one  of  the  episodes,  tells  of  a  visit  to  the  execution 
of  a  child-murderess  and  leaves  a  whole  page  blank  as  an 
appropriate  proof  of  incapacity  to  express  his  emotions. 
Herder  in  "Ideenzur  Philosophic  der  Geschichte  der  Mensch- 
heit"  tells  of  the  fathers  of  antiquity  who  were  driven  by 
need  and  hunger  to  kill  their  own  children.  Even  to  them  the 
crime  was  so  horrible  and  they  so  disliked  to  commit  it  that 
they  consecrated  the  children  to  death  even  while  they  were 

19  Deutsches  Museum,  I???1,  329*- 

20  "Drei  Preisschriften,"  p.  n. 


81 

unborn,  before  hearing  their  voice.  "Many  an  infanticide," 
Herder  continues,  "confessed  that  nothing  was  so  hard  for 
her  and  nothing  remained  so  vivid  in  her  memory  as  the 
first  pitiful  cry,  the  imploring  voice  of  the  child."21 

List  in  his  contest  essay  enumerates  twelve  types  of  girls 
who  became  infanticides,  and  only  one  is  the  harlot.  All  the 
others  were  at  first  girls  of  good  character.  Very  frequently 
the  father  or  mother  of  the  girl  was  dead.  The  preacher's 
daughter,  as  we  find  her  in  Burger's  "Des  Pfarrers  Tochter 
von  Taubenhain,"or  in  Maler  Miiller's  "Das  Nusskernen," 
the  artist's  daughter,  as  in  Gemmingen's  "Der  deutsche  Haus- 
vater,"  the  peasant's  daughter,  as  in  Holty's  "Adelstan  und 
Roschen,"  or  the  daughter  of  other  honest  and  respectable 
parents  are  the  typical  girls  who  found  it  necessary  to  commit 
infanticide.  Maler  Miiller  tells  of  a  widow  who  had  a  quiet, 
honest,  industrious  daughter  who  became  an  unmarried  moth- 
er; Jung-Stilling  of  another  girl  who  was  good  and  virtuous, 
who  had  no  desire  to  lead  an  immoral  life,  who  had  a  tender 
heart,  was  beautiful  and  pious.  Pestalozzi  devotes  a  whole 
section  of  his  essay  "Ueber  Gesetzgebung  und  Kindermord" 
to  the  girl  who  became  the  victim  of  seduction  on  going  into 
service  in  the  city;  Gretchen  in  Goethe's  "Faust"  is  a  poor 
but  virtuous  girl,  her  father  is  dead  and  she  has  been  denied 
the  ordinary  pleasures  of  youth.  Her  first  experience  of  love 
is  with  a  man  of  the  world,  who  is  ruled  solely  by  passion. 

The  real  tragic  interest  lies  in  the  contrast  between  the 
loveliness  of  motherhood  and  the  awfulness  of  child-murder. 
Bettina  in  Buchholz'  sketch  by  the  same  name  has  lived  her 
life  as  if  in  a  light  morning  dream,  playing  like  a  child  and 
always  the  happiest  of  her  playmates.  She  would  sit  at  the 
spinning  wheel,  while  she  sang  songs  of  the  birds  and  trees 
to  her  baby  brother  in  the  cradle  at  her  side.  Later  she  was 
seduced  by  a  stranger  while  she  was  working  in  the  city,  and 
still  later  in  order  to  rid  herself  of  the  unbearable  burden, 
killed  her  own  child.  Gretchen  in  "Faust"  is  "the  most 
child-like,  good-hearted  and  the  most  naive  of  all  of  Goethe's 
woman  characters.  She  becomes  the  murderess  of  her  own 

21  "Herders  Ausgewahlte  Werke."     Stuttgart  und  Berlin,  I,  131. 


82 

child,  which  she  has  received  from  the  man  she  loved  most  in 
all  the  world."  Sympathy  for  her  is  increased  by  the  fact 
that,  as  if  by  foreboding,  she  has  performed  the  burdensome 
duties  of  motherhood  for  her  baby  sister. 

What  were  the  motives  which  conspired  to  drive  the  un- 
married mother  to  become  a  murderess?  One  of  the  motifs 
used  by  nearly  all  writers  of  the  period — and  its  source  was 
real  life — was  the  desertion  of  her  who  was  soon  to  be  an  un- 
married mother  by  the  man  who  saw  no  sanctity  in  the  sex 
relation  and  was  averse  to  marriage.  The  forsaken  unmarried 
mother,  indeed,  most  frequently  became  the  infanticide. 

Karl,  in  Gemmingen's  drama,  says  to  Sophie,  his  sister: 
"Tell  me,  wouldn't  it  be  inhuman  to  desert  the  girl  without 
saying  anything,  the  girl  who  has  already  dreamed  that  she 
would  be  my  wife,  and  who  will  soon  be  a  mother?"  Sprick- 
mann  in  his  dramatic  sketch  "Horry"  depicts  Horry  as  almost 
mad  with  despair,  going  to  a  cemetery,  where  he  intends  to  put 
an  end  to  his  miserable  existence.  Just  as  he  reaches  the 
place  a  funeral  procession  arrives.  It  is  the  funeral  of  one  of 
his  victims.  He  sits  by  on  a  tomb-stone  while  the  burial 
ceremony  is  performed.  After  everybody  is  gone,  he  goes  to 
the  grave  and  attempts  to  dig  up  the  remains  that  have  just 
been  interred.  In  the  midst  of  his  work  a  spirit  appears, 
which  says:  "I  am  Marie,  the  beloved,  the  forsaken  one." 
A  little  later  a  second  spirit,  and  then  a  third  appears  each 
wailing  its  pathetic:  "I  am  the  beloved,  the  forsaken  one." 
That  in  at  least  two  cases  infanticide  was  committed  is  re- 
corded a  little  later  in  the  same  scene. 

Ida  in  Sprickmann's  poem  by  the  same  title  and  Marie  in 
his  "Mariens  Reden  bei  ihrer  Trauung"  are  also  forsaken 
girls  who  are  driven  to  mad  deeds.  In  the  one  case  the  girl 
commits  infanticide  and  then  suicide,  in  the  other  suicide 
after  she  has  forced  her  lover,  who  has  forsaken  her  for  an- 
other, to  marry  her.  Lauffer  in  Lenz's  "Der  Hofmeister" 
and  Desportes  in  his  "Die  Soldaten"  both  run  away  and  leave 
the  pregnant  girls  to  their  fate.  Marie  in  Lenz's  "Zerbin," 
Rosette  in  Burger's  "Des  Pfarrers  Tochter  von  Taubenhain," 
the  lover  in  his  "Der  wohlgesinnte  Liebhaber,"  the  girls  in 


83 

Jakobi's  two  poems  "Emma"  and  "Clarchen,"  Angelika  and 
Clarchen  in  Klinger's  "Faust,"  the  infanticide  in  Maler 
Miiller's  "Das  Nusskernen,"  the  brown  maiden  in  his  poem 
by  that  name,  the  murderess  in  A.  G.  Meissner's  poems 
"Lied  einer  Gefallenen"  and  "Die  Morderin,"  Luise  in  Schil- 
ler's "Die  Kindesmorderin,"  Gretchen  in  Goethe's  "Faust" 
and  scores  of  others  are  forsaken  girls,  who  are  compelled  to 
bear  the  burdens  of  an  unmarried  mother.  Most  of  them, 
overwhelmed  with  shame  and  anxiety,  kill  the  child  of  him 
who  has  abandoned  them  to  their  fate. 

Very  often  the  seducer  had  made  promises  to  the  girl  to 
marry  her  or  to  care  for  her.  In  the  civil  courts,  if  an  un- 
married mother  wanted  to  bring  a  successful  suit  against  the 
illegitimate  father  of  her  child,  she  was  compelled  to  produce 
a  written  contract  of  marriage  signed  by  her  former  lover.22 
Burger's  poem  "Der  Ritter  und  sein  Liebchen"  contains  the 
story  of  a  deserted  girl,  who  had  been  promised  marriage. 
When  the  lover  is  about  to  leave  her  she  naively  says, 

Komm  fein  bald  wieder  heim  in's  Land, 
Dass  uns  umschling  em  schonres  Band, 
Als  Band  von  Gold  und  Seide, 
Ein  Band  aus  Lust  und  Freude, 
Gewirkt  von  Priesterhand ! — 

But  the  seducer  frankly  tells  her  that  he  no  longer  has  any 
intention  of  marrying  her.  When  he  rides  away,  the  girl 
realizes  that  she  has  been  betrayed.  The  poem  concludes 

Traut,  Madchen,  leichten  Rittern  nicht! 
Manch  Ritter  ist  ein  Bosewicht, 
Sie  loffeln  wohl  und  wandern 
Von  Einer  zu  der  Andern, 
Und  freien  Keine  nicht. 

Rosette  in  "Des  Pfarrers  Tochter  von  Taubenhain,"  has  also 
been  promised  marriage.  In  Schubart's  poem  "Hannchen 
an  Wilhelm"  the  girl  accuses  Wilhelm  thus: 

22  See  Barkhausen  in  Deutsches  Museum,  17762,  p.  686.  Hess'  "Freymiithige 
Gedanken,"  p.  6 if. 


84 

Denk,  wie  du  mir  mit  hohem  Schwur 
Die  Ehe  hast  versprochen, 
Ach,  armer  Wilhelm,  denke  nur, 
Gott  lasst  ja  keinen  falschen  Schwur 
Auf  Erden  ungerochen. 

But  Lenz  in  particular  employs  this  motif.  We  find  it  in 
his  "Zerbin,"  where  Hohendorf  cannot  propose  to  Miss 
Freundlach  because  a  written  promise  of  marriage  is  held  by 
an  imperial  notary  public  in  favor  of  an  unmarried  mother 
who  was  just  then  rearing  one  of  his  illegitimate  children. 
Zerbin  too  promises  to  marry  Marie  after  his  father  dies  but 
his  failure  even  to  provide  for  her  prompts  her  to  get  rid  of 
the  fruit  of  their  forbidden  love  as  soon  as  it  comes  to  the 
world.  Marie  too  in  "Die  Soldaten"  has  a  promise  of  mar- 
riage which  her  father  threatens  to  send  to  the  parents  of  the 
seducer,  Desportes,  after  he  has  deserted  her. 

Often  the  seducer  resorted  to  perjury.  Guntel  in  Maler 
Miiller's  "Das  Nusskernen"  laughs  at  Frohlich's  vows:  "That 
may  be  for  today,  but  what  of  tomorrow?  April  weather, 
men's  vows.  Today  and  tomorrow  are  two  different  days." 
A  girl  in  Thummel's  "Reise  in  die  mittaglichen  Provinzen 
Frankreichs"  speaks  of  men  as  "  Wortbriichiges  Geschlecht." 
The  motif  of  perjury  reaches  its  climax  in  Sprickmann's  "  Ida," 
A.  G.  Meissner's  two  poems  "Lied  einer  Gefallenen"  and  "Die 
Morderin,"  Gemmingen's  drama  and  Schiller's  "Die  Kindes- 
morderin."  In  the  first  of  Meissner's  poems  the  girl  warns 
the  unborn  child  not  to  inherit  the  characteristics  of  the 
father  and  then  proceeds  to  tell  what  awaits  it  if  it  should 
be  a  girl. 

Dir  wird  ein  Jiingling  schmeicheln, 
mit  stisser  Lockung  viel; 
wird  schworen  falsche  Schwtire, 
denn  Schwur  ist  Mannerspiel. 

In  the  second  poem  she  returns  to  this  theme 

Sie  schmeckten  so  siisse 

die  buhlenden  Kiisse! 

Sie  waren  des  Meineids  so  voll! 


85 

In  Gemmingen's  drama  the  motif  is  again  taken  up.  Lott- 
chen  goes  to  Amalia,  the  rich  widow,  selected  for  Karl's  wife, 
to  appeal  to  her  sympathy.  When  she  fails  to  get  it,  Lotte 
exclaims:  "Let  us  see  what  right  you  have  to  Karl,  if  you  are 
able  to  do  anything  against  the  vows  which  heaven  has  re- 
corded against  the  waitings  of  a  forsaken  girl,  against  the 
whimpering  of  the  creature  which  I  am  carrying  under  my 
heart."  And  the  infanticide  in  Schiller's  poem  exclaims 

Seine  Eide  donnern  aus  dem  Grabe  wieder, 
Ewig,  ewig  wiirgt  sein  Meineid  fort, 

when  she  thinks  of  the  time  when  Joseph  promised  to  care  for 
her.  In  a  later  stanza  she  recalls  burning  his  letters  and  her 
happiness  when  they  actually  took  fire : 

Gliicklich!     Glucklich!     Seine  Briefe  lodern, 
Seine  Eide  frisst  ein  siegend  Feu'r, 
Seine  Kiisse!  wie  sie  hochauflodern! — 
Was  auf  Erden  war  mir  einst  so  teu'r? 

On  Joseph's  vows  she  had  staked  her  whole  future  happiness 
and  she  had  lost. 

Lessing  who  was  a  prophet  in  so  many  ways  to  the  writers 
of  the  Storm  and  Stress  reveals  his  sympathy  with  the  for- 
saken girl  in  "Emilia  Galotti,"  where  he  lets  Orsina  say  to 
Odoardo:  "I  am  a  woman,  yet  I  came  hither  resolute.  We, 
old  man,  can  trust  each  other,  for  we  are  both  injured,  and  by 
the  same  seducer.  Oh,  if  you  knew  how  preposterously,  how 
inexpressibly,  how  incomprehensibly,  I  have  been  injured  by 
him,  you  would  almost  forget  his  conduct  towards  yourself. 
Do  you  know  me?  I  am  Orsina,  the  deluded,  forsaken  Orsina 
— perhaps  forsaken  only  for  your  daughter.  But  how  is  she 
to  blame?  Soon  she  also  will  be  forsaken,  then  another, 
another  and  another.  Ha!  (as  if  in  rapture)  what  a  celestial 
thought!  when  all  who  have  been  victims  of  his  arts  shall  form 
a  band,  and  we  shall  be  converted  into  Maenads,  into  furies; 
what  transport  will  it  be  to  tear  him  piecemeal,  limb  by  limb, 
to  wallow  through  his  entrails,  and  wrench  from  its  seat  the 
traitor's  heart — that  heart  which  he  promised  to  bestow  on 


86 

each,  and  gave  to  none.  Ha!  that  indeed  will  be  glorious 
revelry!" 

Desertion  naturally  leads  to  hatred.  Since  the  typical 
unmarried  mother  was  a  deserted  girl  it  is  not  surprising  to 
find  many  literary  productions  portraying  the  hatred  of  the 
girl  for  her  seducer.  Writers  felt  that  this  hatred  was  one  of 
the  motives  which  prompted  the  unmarried  mother  to  become 
a  murderess.  And  in  order  to  justify  this  hatred  and  to  show 
the  intensity  of  it,  writers  contrasted  the  happy  days  of  love- 
making  with  the  later  pitiful  condition  of  the  girl.  Thummel 
tells  of  a  girl  who  had  gone  insane  with  despair  after  her 
lover  deserted  her.  She  recalls  the  happy  days  of  yore: 

Als  er  sich  mir,  von  alien 
Ihn  Wiinschenden,  ergab, 
Mit  welchem  Wohlgefallen 
Sah  Gott  auf  uns  herab! 

Mein  Auge  nun  von  stissen 
Gefiihlen  iiberging, 
Und  ich  mit  Erstlingsktissen 
An  seinen  Wangen  hing. 

Und  ich  in  seinen  Blicken 
Mein  Bild  gezeichnet  fand — 

Suddenly  she  thinks  of  her  present  condition : 

Natur!  war  diess  Entziicken 

Nur  Blendwerk  deiner  Hand? 

****** 

Kannst  du  auch  Rache  segnen? 
So  nimm,  Gott,  meinen  Schmerz 
Und  grab  ihn  dem  verwegnen 
Mordschuldigen  ins  Herz. 

And  then  she  goes  into  hysterics.  Thummel  gives  vent  to  his 
emotions  in  these  words:  "Every  pulsation  set  her  cheeks 
aglow  with  an  increased  redness,  her  bosom  throbbed  as  if  to 
burst,  her  long  blond  hair  escaped  its  bonds,  and  fluttered 
gleaming  like  a  comet  through  the  night  of  her  prison.  .  .  . 


87 

She  beat  the  air  with  her  hands,  with  her  bared  arms,  strength* 
ened  with  rage,  ...  I  saw  in  her  place  an  avenging  angel, 
who  hovers  over  a  potter's  field  and  seeks  out  the  bloody 
traces  of  outraged  innocence  and  virtue.  Threats  of  eternity 
flashed  from  her  eyes,  and  flowed  from  her  foaming  lips." 
The  poet  says  he  had  no  eyes,  no  more  pity  for  the  other 
unfortunate  inmates,  his  heart  was  so  full  of  the  soul-suffering 
of  this  glorious  woman,  and  he  realized  more  than  ever  the 
truth  of  her  assertion : 

Um  mich  Zerknirschte  sammeln 
Sich  viel  Bedrangte  her 
Doch  Aller  Zungen  stammeln: 
"Ach,  dieseleidet  mehr!" 

The  hatred  of  the  seducer  is  frequently  brought  about  by 
jealousy  of  another  girl.  Burger's  Rosette  is  told  by  the 
Junker  that  he  cannot  marry  her  because  of  the  difference  of 
rank.  The  girl  replies 

Dass  Gott  dich, — du  schandlicher,  biibischer  Mann! 
Dass  Gott  dich  zur  Holle  verdamme! — 

A  fisherman  in  Miller's  "Siegwart"  pulls  the  corpse  of  a 
beautiful  girl  out  of  the  Danube,  while  Kronhelm  and  Sieg- 
wart  stand  by.  On  her  body  they  find  a  letter  addressed  to 
Joseph:  "You  have  made  a  nice  mess  of  it,  Joseph.  You 
promised  to  marry  me,  even  swearing  in  the  name  of  the  Holy 
Virgin  that  you  would,  and  now  you  have  taken  another  girl. 
But  I  know  what  I  shall  do.  ...  In  the  Danube  many  have 
found  their  grave,  I  shall  find  mine  there  too."  Hannchen 
in  Schubart's  poem  "Hannchen  an  Wilhelm"  says: 

Ha,  falscher  Wilhelm!  spottest  mein, 
In  deines  Liebchens  Armen, 

and  the  pregnant  girl  in  his  "Das  schwangere  Madchen" 
likewise  complains: 

Und  nun  eilt  mit  frecher  Stirne 
In  die  Arme  einer  Dime 
Der  Verruchte,  spottet,  lacht, 
Dass  er  mich  zu  Fall  gebracht. 


88 

Maler  Miiller's  idyl  "Das  Nusskernen"  tells  of  a  girl  who 
kills  her  child  from  jealousy  of  another  girl,  who  has  supplanted 
her.  When  she  is  in  court,  however,  she  refuses  to  divulge  the 
name  of  him  who  has  brought  her  into  trouble.  Her  refusal 
later  drives  the  seducer  to  confession.  Marie  in  Lenz's 
"Zerbin"  likewise  shields  her  seducer  and  dies  without  telling 
his  name.  Zerbin  is  amazed  at  her  nobility  of  soul  and  later 
commits  suicide.  Luise  in  Schiller's  poem  reveals  what  she 
thought  when  she  killed  her  child : 

Ach  vielleicht  umflattert  eine  andre, 
Mein  vergessen,  dieses  Schlangenherz, 
Uberfliesst,  wenn  ich  zum  Grabe  wandre, 
An  dem  Putztisch  in  verliebten  Scherz! 

A  much  more  important  motive  which  prompted  the  un- 
married mother  to  become  an  infanticide  was  the  fear  of 
shame.  Justus  Moser  in  looking  over  the  785  cases  of  ille- 
gitimacy referred  to  above,  suggested  that  the  fear  of  shame 
was  the  first  thing  which  came  to  the  mind  of  a  girl  when  she 
discovered  that  she  was  about  to  become  a  mother.  The 
formula  for  the  girls  of  the  peasant  class,  so  Moser  asserted, 
was:  "O  Jesus!  Johann,  wenn  dar  man  niks  van  upsteit!" 
and  for  those  of  the  upper  classes:  "O  Herr  Gott!  Wenn 
etwas  davon  kame!  Was  ware  ich  ein  ungliickliches  Kind! 
Was  wollten  Papa  und  Mama  sagen ! " 

The  ridicule  of  parents,  especially  that  of  the  father,  was 
especially  to  be  dreaded.  Erich  Schmidt  in  his  excellent 
characterization  of  the  cruel  father  in  Wagner's  "Kindermor- 
derinn"  pointed  out  recurrences  and  imitations  of  this  char- 
acter in  such  a  large  number  of  productions  of  this  and  suc- 
ceeding periods,  that  critical  discussion  recognizes  "der  pol- 
ternde  Vater"  as  a  typical  figure. 

First  of  all  there  is  the  unrelenting  father,  who  drives  his 
unfortunate  daughter  from  home  and  maintains  his  cruel 
attitude  to  the  bitter  end.  Such  a  parent  is  the  father  of 
Rosette  in  Burger's  "Des  Pfarrers  Tochter  von  Taubenhain." 

Der  Vater,  ein  harter  und  zorniger  Mann, 
Schalt  laut  die  arme  Rosette; 


89 

"Hast  du  dir  erbuhlt  fur  die  Wiege  das  Kind, 
So  hebe  dich  mir  aus  den  Augen  geschwind, 
Und  schaff'  auch  den  Mann  dir  in's  Bette!" 

Er  schlang  ihr  fliegendes  Haar  um  die  Faust; 

Er  hieb  sie  mit  knotigen  Riemen. 
******** 

Er  stiess  sie  hinaus  in  der  finstersten  Nacht 
Bei  eisigem  Regen  und  Winden. 

Rosette  never  returns. 

Humbrecht,  in  Wagner's  "Die  Kindermorderinn,"  is  equally 
blustering  but  relents  in  the  end.  When  he  discovers  that  the 
"beautiful  maid  in  the  rear  of  the  house"  is  a  prospective 
unmarried  mother,  he  shouts:  "Das  Lumpenzeug!  der  ver- 
dammte  Nickel !  Den  Augenblick  soil  sie  mir  aus  dem  Haus. 
.  .  .  Wirsts  ihr  bald  ankiindigen  oder  nicht?  wenn  ichs  ihr 
selbst  sagen  muss,  so  steh  ich  nicht  dafur,  dass  ich  sie  nicht  mit 
dem  Kopf  zuerst  die  Treppen  hinunterschmeiss."  When 
he  finds  out  that  Evchen  and  her  mother  have  been  at  the 
ball  during  his  absence  he  blusters,  then  calms  down  and 
warns:  "Diesmal  sollst  noch  so  durchschlupfen ;  Wenns  aber 
noch  einmal  geschieht,  Blitz  und  Donner!  nur  noch  einmal,  so 
tret  ich  dir  alle  Ribben  im  Leib  entzwey."  It  is  no  wonder 
that  such  blustering  drives  Evchen  from  home  when  she  dis- 
covers that  she  too  is  a  prospective  unmarried  mother.  The 
humanity  of  the  father  is  revealed,  however,  in  his  persistent 
effort  to  locate  his  daughter  after  she  has  run  away  from  home. 
After  Evchen  has  killed  her  child  in  the  last  act  of  the  drama 
the  father  suddenly  appears  on  the  scene.  For  a  moment  he  is 
stunned  by  what  he  beholds,  he  veritably  barks  at  the  mes- 
sengers of  the  court  but  at  his  departure  he  assures  Evchen: 
"Adieu!  Am  armen  Sunderhaussel  seh  ich  dich  wieder, 
Eve!  Sag  dir  das  letztemal  Adieu!"  In  spite  of  all  his 
severity,  he  is  willing  to  perform  his  duty  as  father,  by  his 
presence  to  console  her  in  the  most  excruciating  ordeal  of  her 
life. 

To  this  type  also  belong  the  fathers  depicted  in  Lenz's 
dramas,  and  in  his  "Zerbin."  The  severity  of  the  Major  in 


90 

"Der  Hofmeister"  drives  his  daughter  Gustchen  from  home, 
after  she  has  been  betrayed  by  Lauffer.  After  a  prolonged 
search  he  finds  her  and  weeps  like  a  child  because  he  is  so 
happy  to  have  her  again.  The  two  emotions  which  are  most 
prominent  are  his  natural  tendency  to  severity  on  the  one 
hand  and  his  natural  love  for  his  child  on  the  other.  This 
contrast  is  best  brought  out  in  the  last  act.  After  the  Major 
has  rescued  Gustchen  from  drowning,  he  says:  "There!  put 
her  down,  (he  and  the  privy  councillor  try  to  encourage  her) 
accursed  child!  did  I  have  to  educate  you  to  this  end!  (kneels 
down  beside  her)  Gustel!  what  is  the  matter?  Have  you 
swallowed  some  water?  You  are  my  Gustel  anyhow,  are 
you  not?  .  .  .  Wicked  good-for-nothing!  If  you  had  only 
said  one  word  about  it  before;  I  would  have  bought  a  title  of 
nobility  for  the  rascal  and  you  could  have  been  married." 
Then  she  asks  his  pardon.  He  answers:  "Yes,  may  the  devil 
pardon  you,  degenerate  child.  No,  (kneels  down  at  her  side) 
do  not  fall  down  my  Gustel — my  Gustel!  I  shall  pardon  you, 
everything  is  forgiven  and  forgotten.  .  .  .  O,  you  my  only 
dearest  treasure!  I  am  so  glad  that  I  can  carry  you  on  my 
arms  again,  you  wicked  good-for-nothing!" 

Another  type  of  blustering  father  is  the  father  who  foresees 
the  tragic  possibilities  of  the  girl's  condition  and  does  every- 
thing in  his  power  to  prevent  them.  Such  a  father  is  Walter 
in  Maler  Miiller's  idyls.  Veitel,  Lotte's  sweetheart,  is  about 
to  leave  for  an  extended  journey.  The  latter,  expecting  to  be 
a  mother  soon,  fears  that  something  may  happen  in  his  ab- 
sence which  may  make  it  impossible  for  them  to  be  married; 
that  he  may  never  return  or  another  girl  may  alienate  his 
affections.  The  father  of  Lotte  notices  that  she  is  very  sad 
and  rebukes  her,  whereupon  the  "Schulmeister"  warns  him 
to  be  careful  lest  he  bring  some  misfortune  to  pass.  He  sud- 
denly realizes  the  situation  and  immediately  accedes  to  the 
desire  of  Veitel  and  Lotte  to  marry. 

More  than  the  ridicule  of  parents,  unmarried  mothers  feared 
the  ridicule  of  the  world.  Rosette  in  Burger's  "Des  Pfarrers 
Tochter  von  Taubenhain"  pleads  with  the  Junker 


91 

O  mach'  es  nun  gut,  was  du  iibel  gemacht! 
Bist  du  es,  der  mich  in  Schande  gebracht, 
So  bring'  auch  mich  wieder  zu  Ehren! — 

When  he  refuses  she  curses  him  with  the  wish 

Dann  fuhle,  Verrather,  dann  fuhle,  wie's  thut, 
An  Ehr'  und  an  Gliick  zu  verzweifeln! 

The  infanticide  of  whom  Sturz  tells  in  his  essay  "Ueber 
Linguets  Vertheidigung  der  Todesstrafen  "  admits  to  the 
judges  that  she  had  a  terrific  struggle  before  she  decided  to  kill 
her  own  child.  "I  lost  my  virtue,"  she  relates,  "and  now  my 
peace  of  life  was  gone.  How  they  will  look  down  upon  me, 
ridicule  my  pride  and  my  disgrace !  How  I  shall  be  compelled 
to  atone  for  this  false  step  of  a  single  minute  all  my  long 
miserable  life!  Now  I  am  no  longer  worthy  of  a  girl  friend, 
or  of  a  husband,  of  the  respect  of  my  playmates,  or  even  of  a 
single  pleasure.  The  honorable  name  of  mother  is  an  eternal 
title  of  disgrace  for  me.  Oh  my  judges,  such  thoughts  raged 
in  my  bosom  in  the  hour  of  child-birth!" 

No  poet  so  strongly  portrayed  the  unmarried  mother's 
fear  of  the  world's  ridicule  as  did  Goethe.  We  get  an  idea 
of  the  power  of  this  ridicule  in  the  scene  "Am  Brunnen," 
where  Gretchen  learns  of  the  fall  of  Barbelchen.  Lieschen 
says  of  the  latter: 

So  ist's  ihr  endlich  recht  ergangen. 
******* 

Da  mag  sie  denn  sich  ducken  nun, 
Im  Siinderhemdchen  Kirchbuss'  tun! 

Gretchen  recalls  how  she  formerly  joined  her  playmates  in 
heaping  disgrace  on  a  poor  girl  who  had  made  a  mistake,  and 
then  she  sees  the  consequences  of  her  own  condition  when  she 
confesses 

Und  bin  nun  selbst  der  Siinde  bloss! 

A  little  later  she  cries  to  the  mater  dolorosa: 

Hilf!  rette  mich  von  Schmach  und  Tod! 


92 


Not  until  Valentin  as  the  representative  of  a  cruel  society 
pours  out  his  venom  against  his  sister,  however,  does  this  fear 
of  the  ridicule  of  the  world  come  to  full  expression.  Valentin 
says  : 

Ich  sag'  dir's  im  Vertrauen  nur: 
Du  bist  doch  nun  einmal  eine  Hur'; 

So  sei's  auch  eben  recht. 
******* 

Ich  seh'  wahrhaftig  schon  die  Zeit, 
Dass  alle  brave  Burgersleut; 
Wie  von  einer  angesteckten  Leichen, 
Von  dir,  du  Metze!  seitab  weichen. 
Dir  soil  das  Herz  im  Leib  verzagen, 

Wenn  sie  dir  in  die  Augen  sehn! 
******* 

In  eine  finstre  Jammerecken 
Unter  Bettler  und  Kriippel  dich  verstecken, 
Und  wenn  dir  dann  auch  Gott  verzeiht, 
Auf  Erden  sei  vermaledeit! 

Not  a  word  of  pity,  not  one  of  forgiveness. 

Then  there  was  the  fear  of  shame  for  the  innocent  child 
and  the  voluntary  surrender  of  the  girl  to  the  law  in  order 
to  expiate  her  deed.  In  Sturz's  essay  referred  to  above,  the 
infanticide  prays:  "O  Creator,  take  it,  this  innocent  child, 
it  will  escape  all  the  cares  of  a  miserable  life."  Ida  in  Sprick- 
mann's  poem  by  the  same  name  fears  for  the  future  of  the 
child  also. 

O  Humfried!  deiner  Liebe  Kind — 
Was  soil,  was  soil  ihm  werden? 
Soil's,  uberall  wo  Menschen  sind, 
Soil's  auf  dem  weiten  Rund  der  Erden, 
Mit  der  Mutter  in  Schande 
Verfluchen  dich! 
Verfluchen  mich! 
Verfluchen  unsrer  Liebe  Bande? 

In  his  "Mariens  Reden  bei  ihrer  Trauung"  Sprickmann 
depicts  the  extremes  to  which  a  mother  will  go  to  give  her 
child  a  chance  in  life.  Marie,  instead  of  killing  her  illegiti- 


93 

mate  child,  summons  Karl,  the  unmarried  father,  and  insists 
that  he  fulfill  his  promise  of  marriage.  After  she  has  pleaded 
with  him  a  long  time  without  success,  she  takes  poison  to 
convince  him  of  the  seriousness  of  her  demand.  When  he 
sees  this  he  yields,  the  preacher  and  the  witnesses  who  have 
been  waiting  in  the  adjoining  room  are  called  in,  the  ceremony 
is  performed,  but  Marie  before  taking  final  leave  of  her  now 
legal  husband,  says:  "Karl,  forgive  me,  it  was  only  for  the 
sake  of  the  child!" 

Lotte  in  Gemmingen's  drama  asks  Karl  in  the  letter  she 
writes  to  him:  "What  shall  a  parentless  child,  a  disgraced 
girl  do  in  this  world?  If  you  forsake  me  I  shall  kill  the  child 
with  my  own  hands  and  then  let  them  execute  me  publicly." 
Schiller  too  felt  the  power  of  this  motif.  In  "Die  Kindes- 
morderin"  Luise  thinks  of  the  future  when  the  child  will  ask 

Weib,  wo  ist  mein  Vater?  lallte 

Seiner  Unschuld  stumme  Donnersprach', 

and  the  mother  will  answer, 

Weh,  umsonst  wirst,  Waise,  du  ihn  suchen, 
Der  vielleicht  schon  andre  Kinder  herzt, 
Wirst  der  Stunde  unsres  Gliickes  fluchen, 
Wenn  dich  einst  der  Name  Bastard  schwarzt.23 

The  origin  of  the  motive  of  fear  of  shame  is  to  be  found  in 
the  emphasis  placed  by  the  church  on  virginity  at  marriage. 
This  emphasis  is  reflected  in  certain  customs  which  obtained 
far  and  wide  in  Europe  in  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. There  was  the  permission  given  to  the  chaste  bride  to 
wear  a  laurel  wreath  on  her  wedding-day,  the  celebration  of 
the  rose  festival,  in  which  only  chaste  maidens  could  take 

23  The  motif  is  used  by  a  number  of  authors  before  Schiller  and  is  so  similar 
in  wording  that  one  suspects  borrowing.  For  instance  the  mother  in  Maler 
Miiller's  "Das  braune  Fraulein"  says: 

Einst  kamst  du  erwachsen: 
Wo,  Mutter,  ist  der  Mann, 
Den  ich  soil  Vater  nennen? 
Hab '  ich  kein  Vater  dann? 

Cf.  also  A.  G.  Meissner's  "Die  Morderin." 


94 

part,  the  crowning  with  a  laurel  wreath  of  young  men  and 
women,  who  had  died  chaste,  or  the  placing  of  a  wreath  on 
their  bier  for  the  same  reason,  and  the  hanging  of  a  straw 
wreath  on  the  door  of  the  home  of  a  fallen  girl.  The  prevalence 
of  these  customs  is  reflected  in  Goethe's  "Faust,"  where 
Lieschen  tells  Gretchen  of  the  fall  of  Barbelchen : 

Das  Kranzel  reissen  die  Buben  ihr, 
Und  Hackerling  streuen  wir  vor  die  Tiir! 

Or  we  find  it  in  Maler  Miiller's  "Das  braune  Fraulein,"  in 
which  he  depicts  a  girl  who  has  been  deserted  by  her  lover 
after  he  has  dishonored  her.  She  meets  him  one  day  by 
chance  and  throws  herself  on  his  mercy ;  he  however  informs 
her  that  he  cannot  marry  her,  he  has  already  promised  another. 
She  breaks  out  in  lamentation: 

O  f iihr '  vor  alien  Augen, 
Im  Hochzeitkranz  beblumt, 
Mich  aus  der  Jungfraun  Kammer 
Wie's,  Liebster,  sich  geziemt. 

Another  victim  of  seduction  bewails  her  condition  thus: 

O  dass  mem  Puppchen  in  der  Welt, 
Doch  schon — im  Schoos  der  Amme  war! 
Und  ich! — ich  arme,  todt!  dahin! 
Denn  ich  heiss  doch  nie  Jungfer  mehr.24 

The  personification  of  chastity  as  a  blooming  wreath,  and 
the  loss  of  it  as  a  wilting  one,  is  very  widely  used  in  this  litera- 
ture. A  writer  in  the  Deutsches  Museum  in  a  poem  "Die 
Mode"  sarcastically  addresses  a  young  rake: 

Ob  du  junger  Unschuld  Kranze  raubst, 

Dir  Betrug  und  Ehebruch  erlaubst, 
******** 

Das  entehrt  dich  Erstgebornen  nicht. 

Lisel  in  Meissner's  "Lied  von  der  schwarzen  Lise  aus  Kasti- 
lien"  is  asked  by  her  mother  why  she  is  pining  her  life  away. 
She  tells  how  a  young  man  had  betrayed  her. 

14  See  Taschenbuch  filr  Dichter  und  Dichterfreunde,  IX,  80. 


95 

Ach!  ein  J  tingling  hat  geschworen; 
Und  sein  Schwur  ist  fort. 
Ach!  ein  J tingling  hat  geschworen; 
Und  mein  Kranzchen  dorrt — 

Kindleben  in  his  "  Studenten-Lexikon "  defines  "Jungfer" 
thus:  "This  kind  of  creature  is  said  to  be  very  rare  even  in 
the  best  circles.  One  therefore  calls  a  girl  after  she  is  sixteen, 
in  order  not  to  offend  the  truth,  "  Jungfrau"  or  "junge  Frau" 
or  "Mamsell,"  as  they  call  a  "Junker"  "junger  Herr." 
Girls  who  were  not  married  but  had  lost  their  virtue  or  even 
had  a  living  witness  of  their  forbidden  love  still  insisted  on 
being  called  "Jungfer."  Thus  Frau  Marthan  addresses 
Evchen,  the  unmarried  mother  in  Wagner's  "Die  Kinder- 
morderinn,"  by  the  term  "Jungfer,"  to  which  the  latter  re- 
plies: "Are  you  addressing  me,  Frau  Marthan?"  Frau 
Marthan:  "Whom  else?  Shall  I  not  call  you  that?  Curious! 
—there  are  so  many  of  high  and  low  degree  about  the  city,  who 
already  support  three  and  four  such  dolls  as  yours,  and  they 
would  scratch  your  eyes  out  or  bring  suit  against  you  in  the 
courts,  if  you  did  not  call  them  "Jungfer,"  after  as  well  as 
before." 

Pestalozzi  revolted  against  all  these  customs  which  only 
intensified  the  girl's  fear  of  disgrace.  He  suggested  that 
they  be  abolished.  Hippel  and  Moser,  however,  were  heartily 
in  favor  of  their  retention.  The  former  thought  the  wearing 
of  the  laurel  wreath  of  great  value  in  determining  who  was 
virtuous.25 

Another  motif  of  infanticide  utilized  by  poets  was  despair. 
Burger's  Rosette  kills  her  child  in  a  fit  of  despair. 

Erst,  als  sie  vollendet  die  blutige  That, 
Musst'!  ach!  ihr  Wahnsinn  sich  enden. 

The  fallen  girl  in  Meissner's  "Das  Lied  einer  Gefallenen" 
warns  the  unborn  child, 

Nun  bringe  nicht  die  Ziige 
des  Vaters  mit  zur  Welt! 

"See  Hippel,  "Sammtliche  Werke,"  V,  223f.;  Moser,  " Patriotische  Phan- 
tasien,"  1842,  V,  io7f. 


96 

Weil  mich  sonst  leicht  Verzweiflung 
allmachtig  uberfallt. 

The  old  woman  in  Brentano's  "Vom  braven  Kasperl  und  dem 
schonen  Annerl"  says  of  Annerl's  deed:  "She  did  it  in  her 
confusion.  .  .  .  Then  she  despaired  and  did  the  evil  thing."26 
Thummel  tells  of  another  infanticide  who  murdered  her  child 
"out  of  despair."27  The  artist  in  Gemmingen's  drama  points 
out  the  intense  despair  in  the  facial  expression  of  the  unfor- 
tunate girl  on  the  first  sketch  he  shows  Karl,  and  later  he  says 
he  would  dislike  much  to  be  the  prince  who,  on  arriving  in  the 
other  world,  should  be  compelled  to  meet  all  the  known  and 
unknown  murderesses  who  would  come  to  meet  him  "despair- 
ingly." Luise  in  Schiller's  poem  is  ruled  by  two  powers :  love  and 
the  madness  of  despair.  And  Faust  reproaches  Mephistoph- 
eles  in  Goethe's  drama:  "In  misery!  Despairing!  Wan- 
dering miserably  on  the  earth  a  long  time  and  now  imprisoned ! " 

Writers  of  this  period  entirely  left  out  of  consideration  the 
physical  explanation  for  the  forebodings  and  fear  which  preg- 
nant women  have.  Such  forebodings  were  still  looked  upon 
as  signs  of  a  guilty  conscience.  The  fears  of  the  unmarried 
mother  were  always  explained  that  way.  Until  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  unmarried  motherhood  was  often 
brought  into  connection  with  witchcraft.  During  the  prev- 
alence of  this  temporary  insanity,  which  swept  the  whole 
of  Europe  and  even  extended  to  our  own  land,  many  a  girl 
was  executed  because  it  was  thought  she  had  had  commerce 
with  the  devil.  It  is  no  wonder  that  when  such  ideas  were 
current  the  unmarried  mother  was  thought  to  have  such  fore- 
bodings as  a  punishment  for  her  sins. 

The  utilization  of  superstition  is  usually  centered  about 
execution  and  death,  as  well  as  the  reward  after  death.  Burger 
was  particularly  clever  in  the  use  of  superstition  in  his  ballads. 
In  "Des  Pfarrers  Tochter  von  Taubenhain"  he  makes  good 
use  of  this  motif.  In  the  very  first  stanza  an  uncanny  feeling 
conies  over  the  reader. 

28  "  Gesammelte  Schriften,"  VI,  102. 
27  "Sammtliche  Werke,"  VI,  102. 


97 

Im  Garten  des  Pfarrers  von  Taubenhain 
Geht's  irre  bei  Nacht  in  der  Laube. 
Da  flistert  und  stohnt's  so  angstiglich; 
Da  rasselt,  da  flattert  und  straubet  es  sich, 
Wie  gegen  den  Falken  die  Taube. 

After  he  has  told  the  process  of  the  tragedy,  he  returns  to  the 
fated  arbor.  Rosette  has  just  killed  her  child.  She  digs  a 
grave  for  it  with  her  own  hands  and  bids  farewell  to  it  with  the 
fateful  words:  Mich  hacken  die  Raben  vom  Rade!  Then 
we  are  to  imagine  that  the  execution  of  Rosette  has  taken 
place. 

Das  ist  das  Flammchen  am  Unkenteich; 

Das  flimmert  und  flammert  so  traurig, 

Das  ist  das  Platzchen,  da  wachst  kein  Gras; 

Das  wird  vom  Thau  und  vom  Regen  nicht  nass; 

Da  wehen  die  Liiftchen  so  schaurig! 

Allnachtlich  herunter  vom  Rabenstein, 

Allnachtlich  herunter  vom  Rade, 

Huscht  bleich  und  wolkigt  ein  Schattengesicht, 

Will  loschen  das  Flammchen,  und  kann  es  doch  nicht, 

Und  wimmert  am  Unkengestade. 

It  was  just  this  element  of  superstitition  which  made  the 
poem  popular.  Heinrich  Prohle  tells  of  a  place  in  Pansfelde, 
the  early  home  of  Burger,  where  an  infanticide  was  supposed  to 
have  spent  many  hours  on  her  hands  and  knees  in  supplication 
to  God  that  her  sins  might  be  forgiven.  It  was  not  far  from 
a  parsonage  where  just  such  superstitious  sounds  and  signs 
as  Burger  recorded  in  his  poem  could  be  heard  and  seen. 
One  sees  how  the  poem  affected  the  minds  of  the  people.  The 
transformation  of  the  poem  into  a  folk-song  as  it  is  reproduced 
in  "Des  Knaben  Wunderhorn"  is  further  evidence  to  the 
same  end. 

Often  the  superstitious  element  comes  in  the  form  of  some 
foreboding,  or  dream.  Thus  Burger's  "Des  armen  Suschen's 
Traum"  pictures  a  deserted  girl,  similar  in  some  respects 
to  "Lenore."  Suschen  tells  of  a  dream, 


98 

Ich  traumte,  wie  um  Mitternacht 

Mein  Falscher  mir  erschien. 
******* 

Er  zog  den  Treuring  von  der  Hand 
Und  ach!  zerbrach  ihn  mir. 
Ein  wasserhelles  Perlenband 
Warf  er  mir  hin  dafiir. 

Then  in  a  later  stanza  she  tells  us 

Erfullt  ist  langst  das  Nachtgesicht, 

Ach!  langst  erfiillt  genau. 
******* 

Nun  brich,  o  Herz,  der  Ring  ist  hin! 
Die  Perlen  sind  geweint! 
Statt  Myrt'  erwuchs  dir  Rosmarin! 
Der  Traum  hat  Tod  gemeint. 

Jung-Stilling  in  "Heinrich  Stillings  Jugend  und  Jtinglings- 
jahre"  tells  of  a  melancholic  girl  who  had  a  very  peculiar 
foreboding  of  her  future  lot.  The  girl  had  a  dream  in  which 
she  went  out  on  a  meadow.  Here  she  was  suddenly  ap- 
proached by  a  young  man,  who  accosted  her  and  then  was 
changed  into  a  ghost.  The  ghost  directed  that  she  should 
look  in  a  certain  direction,  where  she  beheld  a  poor  unmarried 
mother,  clad  in  rags  from  head  to  foot,  with  a  small  child  on 
her  arm,  which  looked  very  miserable.  Then  the  ghost  said : 
"See!  this  is  already  the  third  illegitimate  child,  that  you 
shall  have."  The  girl  fainted  away  and  when  she  awoke  she 
lay  in  her  bed  bathed  in  cold  perspiration.  In  the  next  para- 
graph the  author  reports  that  the  sad  life  of  the  girl  proved 
that  the  dream  came  true.  A  year  after  she  had  dreamed  she 
committed  her  first  folly,  which  was  only  the  first  step  to  her 
fall.  She  was  later  compelled  to  stand  in  stocks  before  the 
public  and  be  ridiculed  as  an  arch-harlot.  The  relating  of  the 
incident  ends  in  a  polemic  against  laws  which  forced  the  un- 
married mother  to  become  an  outcast  of  society. 

Writers  cleverly  utilized  the  remorse  of  the  unfaithful  lover 
after  the  girl's  death.  They  interpret  the  pangs  of  his  con- 
science as  the  torment  which  the  girl  inflicts  after  she  has 


99 

departed  this  life.  In  her  utter  helplessness  the  girl  finds 
comfort  in  her  belief  that  there  will  be  a  day  of  reckoning,  and 
that  she  will  have  an  opportunity  to  pursue  her  unfaithful 
sweetheart  as  a  spirit.  Thus  the  girl  who  commits  suicide 
in  Miller's  "Siegwart"  warns  Joseph:  "Be  careful!  I  invite 
you  to  come  to  the  valley  of  Josaphat  on  the  first  day  of  the 
new  year."  Hannchen  in  Schubart's  poem  "Hannchen  an 
Wilhelm"  threatens, 

Doch  wisse  nur,  Gott  wird  sich  mein 
Am  jiingsten  Tag  erbarmen. 
******* 

Ach  Wilhelm,  Wilhelm,  denke  dran! 
Mein  Geist  wird  dir  erscheinen. 

The  lover  in  Maler  Miiller's  "Das  braune  Fraulein,"  after 
wandering  over  the  earth  in  an  attempt  to  find  peace,  ex- 
claims : 

Ja  susses,  sanftes  Madchen 
Aus  Treue  starbst  du,  ach! 
Muss  grausam  dir  nun  folgen, 
Dein  Geist,  er  winket  nach! 

Holty  in  "Adelstan  und  Roschen"  depicts  the  appearance  of 
the  spirit  of  the  dead  girl  to  her  unfaithful  lover: 

Sie  zeigte,  wann  es  zwolfe  schlug, 
Jetzt  alle  Nachte  sich, 
Verhullet  in  ein  Todtentuch, 
Und  wimmert'  und  entwich. 

The  appearance  of  three  spirits  to  Horry  in  Sprickmann's 
dramatic  sketch  by  the  same  name,  has  already  been  alluded 
to.  Schiller's  Luise  warns  her  seducer 

Joseph!     Joseph!     Auf  entfernte  Meilen 

Folge  dir  Luisens  Totenchor, 

Und  des  Glockenturmes  dumpfes  Heulen 

Schlage  schrecklich  mahnend  an  dein  Ohr — 
********* 

Joseph!     Joseph!     Auf  entfernte  Meilen 


100 

Jage  dir  der  grimme  Schatten  nach, 
Mog'  mit  kalten  Armen  dich  ereilen, 
Donnre  dich  aus  Wonnetraumen  wach, 
Im  Geflimmer  sanfter  Sterne  zucke 
Dir  des  Kindes  grasser  Sterbeblick, 
Es  begegne  dir  im  blut'gen  Schmucke, 
Geissle  dich  vom  Paradies  zuriick! 

There  are  two  other  motifs  which  are  so  typical  in  this 
literature  as  to  merit  attention.  The  first  is  the  hell-motif. 
Holty  in  "Adelstan  und  Roschen"  lets  the  spirit  of  the  girl 
pursue  the  unhappy  Adelstan  until  he  totters  out  to  the  ceme- 
tery and  stabs  himself. 

Folg'!  ruft  ein  Teufel,  folg'! 
Und  seine  Seel'  entfahrt. 

Thummel  in  telling  of  the  insane  unmarried  mother  lets  her 
curse  her  lover, 

Durch  Blutgefilde  treibe 
Hiniiber  ihn  mein  Fluch, 
Und  Satans  Finger  schreibe 
Ihn  in  sein  Hollenbuch! 

Ida  in  Sprickmann's  poem  feels  the  pangs  of  hell,  when  she 
addresses  her  child  in  the  words 

Ha!  Kaum  noch  da,  und  donnert  nicht  schon 

Des  ersten  Winselns  Jammerton 

Der  sterbenden  Mutter  den  Hollenlohn? 

and  when  she  discovers  the  similarity  of  features  of  her  child 
and  of  Humfried,  she  shrieks  in  rage 

Holle!— Humfried'sdu! 

Und  habe  dich  im  Schoos? — Zum  Teufel! — Hu! — Hu! — 

In  his  dramatic  sketch  the  third  spirit  says  to  Horry:  "Teufel! 
Du  hast  Ftille  in  deinen  Lenden;  weiche  Rosenbette  hat  die 
Holle.  Denk  an  Johannisnacht,  und  komm  nach,  mein 
Trauter!  Wirwollenuns  in  den  Flammen  umarmen."  And 
the  murderess  in  Meissner's  "Die  Morderin"  exclaims 


101 

Welch  schallender  Jubel  ertont 

Vom  Hollenschlund  empor? 

Erschein,  erschein,  verfluchtes  Chor! 

Hoi  im  Triumfe 

zum  hollischen  Sumpfe 

Die  Morderin,  die  deine  Qualen  hohnt! 

Later  she  directs  herself  to  her  unfaithful  lover: 

Ha!  zage,  Verruchter! 
Verzeiht  Er  nicht  mir; 
Dann  bin  ich,  Verfluchter, 
bald  flammend  bei  dir. 
Und  schlepp  dich  zur  Holle 
mit  gliihender  Faust, 
wo  ewig  dein  Jammer 
wie  Wintersturm  braust. 

At  bottom  this  motif  is  the  girl's  fear  of  damnation  in  helL 
Gretchen  attempts  to  put  aside  her  forebodings  of  this  dam- 
nation, which  the  choir,  in  the  scene  "Dom"  in  "  Faust,  'r 
as  the  representative  of  the  sanctimonious  church  heralds 
forth.  The  evil  spirit,  a  composite  of  the  popular  interpre- 
tation of  church  decrees  and  of  Gretchen's  conscience,  a  spirit 
which  had  prompted  many  another  girl  in  Gretchen's  pathetic 
condition  to  try  to  conform  to  the  demand  of  church  and  state, 
namely  to  remain  chaste  in  their  sight,  now  dictates  to  her: 

Verbirg  dich!     Siind'  und  Schande 
Bleibt  nicht  verborgen. 

but  warns  at  the  same  time 

Und  dein  Herz 
Aus  Aschenruh 
Zu  Flammenqualen 
Wieder  aufgeschaffen, 
Bebt  auf! 

Her  only  hope  was  in  concealment  of  her  condition  and  in  the 
clandestine  destruction  of  her  child.     In  the  prison  scene  we 


102 

discover  that  she  has  failed  in  her  attempt.  When  Faust 
comes  to  rescue  her,  her  fear  of  damnation  in  hell  is  clearly 
brought  to  view  by  her  words : 

O  lass  uns  knien,  die  Heil'gen  anzurufen! 

Sieh!  unter  diesen  Stufen, 

Unter  der  Schwelle 

Siedet  die  Holle! 

Der  Bose, 

Mit  furchtbarem  Grimme, 

Macht  ein  Getose! 

and  a  little  later  she  adds 

Mitten  durchs  Heulen  und  Klappen  der  Holle, 
Durch  den  grimmigen,  teuflischen  Hohn 
Erkannt  ich  den  siissen,  den  liebenden  Ton! 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Goethe  later  said  of  "Faust":  "Ja,  es  ist 
etwas  von  der  Holle  darin." 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  extensive  use  of 
the  hell-motif  indicates  that  all  the  writers  still  agreed  with 
public  opinion  that  every  unmarried  mother  was  damned. 
Lenz,  for  instance,  lets  Zerbin  brood  for  days  over  the  heroism 
of  Marie  during  her  trial  and  execution  for  clandestine  child- 
birth. Finally  Zerbin  decides  to  put  an  end  to  his  life,  but 
before  doing  so  he  addresses  a  long  prayer  to  the  departed 
Marie  in  which  he  calls  her  a  saint.  In  the  concluding  remarks 
of  the  novelette  the  author  makes  it  clear  that  both  the  sup- 
posed infanticide  and  the  suicide  were  saved.  While  the 
"Urfaust"  of  Goethe  does  not  contain  the  words:  "Sie  ist 
gerettet!"  a  careful  reading  of  the  fragment  can  lead  to  no 
other  conclusion  than  that  Goethe  intended  that  Gretchen 
should  be  saved. 

The  other  motif  is  the  eternal  feminine.  In  order  to  make 
her  tragedy  more  effective  and  to  prove  her  innocence,  Goethe 
portrays  Gretchen  as  a  typical  representative  of  her  sex.  Her 
naivete,  her  simplicity,  her  sincerity  and  her  naturally  willing 
surrender  to  the  man  ruled  solely  by  passion,  win  the  favor  of 
the  reader  from  the  outset.  The  happy  days  of  love-making 


103 

form  one  of  the  most  typical  of  human  experiences.  Even 
after  her  fall,  Gretchen  can  never  forget  those  happy  days  so 
full  of  bliss.  In  the  prison  scene  she  hears  the  voice  of  Faust 
and  she  happily  exclaims : 

Er  ist's!  Er  ist's!  Wohin  1st  alle  Qual? 

Wohin  die  Angst  des  Kerkers?  der  Ketten? 

Du  bist's!     Kommst  mich  zu  retten! 

Ich  bin  gerettet! — 

Schon  ist  die  Strasse  wieder  da, 

Auf  der  ich  dich  zum  ersten  Male  sah. 

Later  she  recalls  those  days  again: 

Das  war  ein  susses,  ein  holdes  Gliick! 

Another  truly  feminine  and  at  the  same  time  typically 
human  trait  is  the  willingness  of  the  girl  to  sacrifice  her  life  in 
expiation  of  her  crime.  Even  Lenz  and  Wagner  discovered 
the  dramatic  force  of  this  trait.  Evchen  in  "  Die  Kindermor- 
derinn"  insists  that  she  must  die,  in  fact  she  prefers  to  die. 
When  the  Magister  pleads  with  her  to  marry  Groningseck, 
asserting  that  the  latter  has  requested  her  to  do  so,  she  an- 
swers: "Me? — I  swear  he  is  no  longer  of  any  concern  to  me  in 
this  life.  .  .  .  And  even  if  he  wants  to  marry  me  ten  times 
over,  I  would  rather  see  the  executioner."  When  Groning- 
seck proposes  to  go  to  Versailles  to  get  a  pardon  she  rebukes 
him :  "  Pardon  for  me?  Groningseck,  what  are  you  thinking  of? 
— shall  I  die  ten  thousand  deaths?  I  would  rather  die  today 
than  tomorrow."  Marie  in  Lenz's  "Zerbin"  exclaims  to  her 
father:  "I  swear  it,  no  human  being  dies  more  willingly  than 
I  do."  Luise  in  Schiller's  poem  welcomes  the  messenger  of 
the  criminal  court: 

Freudig  eilt'  ich,  in  dem  kalten  Tode 
Auszuloschen  meinen  Flammenschmerz. 

When  Faust  comes  to  free  Gretchen,  she  refuses  to  go  with 
him  because  she  wants  to  expiate  her  crime.  When  Faust 
pleads : 

Fiihlst  du,  dass  ich  es  bin,  so  komm! 


104 

She  answers : 

1st  das  Grab  drauss! 
Lauert  der  Tod,  so  komm! 
Von  hier  ins  ewige  Ruhebett 

Und  weiter  keinen  Schritt — 
********* 

Ich  darf  nicht  fort;  fur  mich  ist  nichts  zu  hoffen. 

And  then  there  is  the  willingness  to  forgive.  In  spite  of  the 
hatred  she  has  harbored  in  her  soul  against  Joseph,  Luise  in 
Schiller's  poem  finally  reveals  her  nobility  of  soul. 

Joseph!     Gott  im  Himmel  kann  verzeihen, 

Dir  verzeiht  die  Siinderin. 

Meinen  Groll  will  ich  der  Erde  weihen. 

Goethe  goes  even  farther.  He  does  not  permit  Gretchen  to 
say  one  word  of  hatred  against  Faust.  Faust  remains  her 
lover  to  the  end.  It  is  this  unfathomable  love  which  in  the 
end  saves  him.  Her  "Heinrich!  Heinrich!"  at  the  end  of 
Part  I  is  not  a  reproach,  but  her  last  greeting  of  love,  her  invi- 
tation to  save  his  soul  as  she  has  saved  hers.  This  explains 
her  joy  at  the  end  of  Part  II  when  Faust's  soul  is  borne  to 
heaven  by  the  hands  of  angels. 

Neige.  neige, 

Du  Ohnegleiche, 

Du  Strahlenreiche, 

Dein  Antlitz  gnadig  meinem  Gliick! 

Der  friih  Geliebte, 

Nicht  mehr  Getrubte, 

Er  kommt  zuriick. 


CHAPTER  IV 

CONCLUDING  OBSERVATIONS 

Eduard  Engel  in  his  "Geschichte  der  deutschen  Literatur" 
voices  the  opinion  of  a  great  many  critics  when  he  refers  to 
Zimmermann's  assertion  that  the  writers  of  the  Storm  and 
Stress  period  were  " '  Kraftknaben, '  who  wanted  to  revolution- 
ize the  whole  of  Germany  and  were  not  able  to  drive  out  a 
single  fly."1  This  attitude  toward  the  results  of  the  revolt 
against  conditions  which  increased  unmarried  motherhood 
and  consequent  infanticide  is  based  on  a  wrong  supposition, 
namely,  that  the  revolt  was  carried  on  by  a  few  'stormy' 
youths,  the  'original  geniuses.'  It  was  not  that  the  'original 
geniuses'  carried  on  a  revolt  but  that  the  extensive  revolt 
found  one  of  its  forms  of  expression  in  the  productions  of  the 
'original  geniuses.'  Quite  naturally  the  results  of  the  agi- 
tation have  not  been  sought  heretofore  in  law-books  and  other 
non-esthetic  literature. 

What  were  some  of  these  results?  Capital  punishment  of 
infanticides  had  been  abolished  in  Russia  before  1770.  In 
1775  it  was  also  abolished  in  parts  of  Austria  Hungary.  It 
was  not  until  Pestalozzi  became  known  to  the  rulers  of  Austria 
that  reform  legislation  was  pushed  to  its  conclusion.  De 
Guimps,  an  American  critic  of  the  great  educator,  writes:  "As 
early  as  the  second  number  of  the  Schweizer-Blatt,  1782,  there  is 
a  fragment  of  an  essay  on  infanticide,  which,  together  with  his 
other  writings,  attracted  the  attention  of  the  most  distinguished 
princes  of  the  time.  The  Emperor  Joseph  II,  for  instance,  and 
the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  both  endeavored  to  apply  Pesta- 
lozzi's  views  to  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  their  sub- 
jects, and  particularly  to  the  reform  of  penal  legislation  and  of 
prison  discipline,  and  with  this  object  instructed  their  ministers 
to  communicate  with  the  author  of  "Leonard  and  Gertrude."2 

1  Leipzig,  1907,  II,  567.     Cf.  also  569. 

a  Roger  de  Guimps,  "  Pestalozzi."     New  York,  1890,  p.  90. 

105 


106 

In  Schlozer's  Stats-Anzeigen  we  read  that  in  Austria,  after  Janu- 
ary 13,  1787,  capital  punishment  was  only  imposed  on  the  ring- 
leaders of  public  mobs.  In  all  other  cases  it  was  abolished.*  In 
Bavaria  this  punishment  for  infanticide  was  not  entirely  abol- 
ished until  1813,  but  in  looking  over  the  records  of  the  criminal 
courts  one  rarely  finds  an  instance  of  capital  punishment  after 
1790.  Generally  infanticides  were  sentenced  to  imprisonment. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  the  other  provinces  of  Germany. 
While  capital  punishment  was  not  officially  abolished  until 
later,  it  was  seldom  decreed  in  practice  after  1790.  In  Sweden 
the  king  admitted  that  capital  punishment  did  not  prevent 
the  commission  of  infanticide  and  therefore  decreed  that  after 
April  12,  1779,  infanticides  should  no  longer  be  executed  but 
be  imprisoned  instead.4  His  other  decrees  in  regard  to  the 
care  of  the  unmarried  mother  and  her  child  are  equally 
interesting  and  show  the  influence  of  the  agitation.  In  Eng- 
land the  conditions  under  which  capital  punishment  was  to  be 
decreed  were  greatly  modified  in  I775-5 

Torture  had  been  abolished  in  Prussia  in  1740.  In  Austria 
it  was  abolished  in  1776.  Its  abolition  was  attributed  to  the 
untiring  efforts  of  a  man  of  merit  and  talent,  a  professor  of 
political  economy  in  the  University  of  Vienna.  He  in  turn 
was  influenced  by  Beccaria.6  In  Sweden  torture  was  abolished 
in  1772  and  in  the  Palatinate  of  Bavaria  in  I779.7 

Church  penance  for  infanticides  was  abolished  in  Prussia 
in  1746,  in  Russia  in  1766,  in  Austria  soon  thereafter  by 
Maria  Theresa.  In  Sweden  it  was  abolished  in  1779.  Duke 
Karl  August  abolished  it  in  the  duchies  of  Weimar  and  Eise- 
nach in  1786.  Kindleben  in  his  "  Studenten-Lexikon  "  speaks 
of  public  church  penance  for  infanticides  as  having  received 
or  as  receiving  the  consilium  abeundi  in  all  the  provinces  of 
Germany. 

The  old  law  which  required  every  unmarried  mother  to 
produce  a  written  contract  signed  by  the  seducer,  generally 

3  xil,  30. 

4  See  Schlozer's  Briefwechsel,  V,  4 iff. 

6  See  Hess,  " Freymuthige  Gedanken,"  p.  237. 
8  Schlozer's  Briefwechsel,  I,  23f. 

7  Idem,  IV,  233  and  VI,  214. 


107 

called  the  promesse  de  marriage,  was  abolished  in  Prussia,  and 
a  new  law  was  substituted  in  1794.  This  new  law  gave  un- 
married mothers  the  rights  of  a  legal  mother  and  forced  the 
seducer  to  marry  her,  if  it  was  possible.8  The  numerous 
drafts  of  new  codes  of  laws  which  were  made  in  the  8o's  and 
QO'S  of  the  eighteenth  century  are,  however,  the  most  impor- 
tant evidence  that  the  revolt  had  direct  results. 

These  are  all  very  definite  visible  results  which  can  be  found 
in  the  legal  and  social  codes  of  that  time.  A  further  idea  of 
the  far-reaching  effect  of  the  revolt  can  be  had  from  a  reading 
of  the  literature  of  the  period.  It  is  evident  that  the  attitude 
toward  the  fallen  girl  was  changing  from  one  of  utter  abhor- 
rence to  one  of  pity,  even  if  this  pity  did  not  always  express 
itself  in  acts.  Maternity  houses  and  homes  of  refuge  for  the 
unmarried  mother  were  established  everywhere  in  Europe. 
The  illegitimate  child  was  accepted  into  the  community  of 
church  and  state,  into  trades  and  unions,  after  it  had  been 
barred  from  such  privileges  for  centuries.  The  interest  in 
the  illegitimate  child  is  evidenced  by  the  establishment  of  a 
large  number  of  foundling-houses,  and  the  efforts  of  some 
people,  Pestalozzi  for  instance,  to  place  the  bastard  child  in 
private  homes,  where  it  would  receive  the  same  care  as  a 
legitimate  child  and  thus  be  made  a  fit  member  of  society. 
It  is  in  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  we  find  the 
origin  of  our  modern  interest  in  the  problem  of  the  unmarried 
mother  and  her  illegitimate  child. 

It  is  certain  that  most  of  the  writers  of  the  period  consciously 
wished  by  their  writings  to  make  a  contribution  to  the  revolt 
against  conditions  which  facilitated  unmarried  motherhood 
and  consequent  infanticide.  Thus  Gemmingen  in  "Der 
deutsche  Hausvater,"  after  letting  the  artist  ascribe  the 
frequency  of  infanticide  to  antiquated  laws  and  to  the  cruelty 
of  princes,  lets  him  say:  "I  should  dislike  very  much  to  be  in 
the  place  of  the  prince,  who,  when  he  arrives  in  the  other 
world,  will  be  greeted  by  all  the  known  and  the  unknown  mur- 
deresses."9 Wagner  in  defending  the  crass  realism  in  "  Die 

*Allgemeines  Landrecht  fiir  die  preussischen  Staaten,  Berlin,  1832,  IV,  614. 
Cf.  Wainlud,  "Die  Kindstotung,"  p.  25!. 
•  Cf.  supra,  p.  96. 


108 

Kindermorderinn "  says  that  he  did  not  write  his  drama  for 
the  stage  but  for  thoughtful  readers. 

In  some  cases  the  results  of  the  efforts  of  writers  can  be 
instanced.  The  case  of  Pestalozzi  has  already  been  alluded 
to.  In  writing  his  essay  the  educator  hoped  that  he  might 
be  used  by  some  ruler  to  the  end  of  changing  conditions  which 
made  unmarried  motherhood  possible.  Goethe,  so  Suphan 
states,  was  busied  from  1778  on  with  the  abolition  of  public 
church  penance  of  unmarried  mothers  in  the  duchies  of 
Eisenach  and  Weimar,  and  its  abolition  by  Duke  Karl  August 
a  few  years  later  must  be  attributed  in  large  part  to  the  poet's 
activities.  And  in  "Dichtung  und  Wahrheit"  Goethe  rells 
us  that  he  "had  seen  so  many  families  who  had  either  been 
ruined  by  bankruptcies,  divorces,  seduced  daughters,  mur- 
ders, robberies,  poisonings,  or  miserably  were  clinging  to  the 
edge  of  existence,"  and  that  he  had,  young  as  he  was,  "often 
offered  assistance  in  such  cases."10  Lenz  in  writing  his  essay 
"Ueber  die  Soldatenehen  "  makes  a  direct  appeal  to  the  rulers 
of  the  time,  and  hopes  to  be  appointed  to  eradicate  some  of 
the  evils  which  increased  illegitimacy.  Although  the  essay 
was  not  published  until  recently,  it  reveals  Lenz's  state  of 
mind.  In  comparing  the  decrees  of  the  king  of  Sweden  and 
Hess'  "Freymuthige  Gedanken"  one  cannot  fail  to  detect 
the  influence  of  the  latter  on  the  former.  From  Laukhard's 
"Der  Wild  und  Rheingraf  Carl  Magnus"  we  infer  that  the 
abolition  of  public  church  penance  in  the  Rhenish  provinces 
was  brought  about  largely  through  the  influence  of  a  writer 
at  the  court  of  the  count. 

Results  due  to  direct  personal  efforts  and  to  the  effectiveness 
of  non-esthetic  literature  are  therefore  attested.  In  con- 
sidering the  effect  of  the  imaginative  literature  of  the  period 
we  must  keep  in  mind  that  it  had  a  two-fold  aim;  first,  it 
attempted  to  influence  public  opinion  in  favor  of  sympathy 
for  the  unmarried  mother;  second,  it  was  to  become  a  contri- 
bution to  the  esthetic  literature  of  the  country  and  the  world. 
I  believe  that  in  the  first  aim  the  writers  succeeded  fairly  well 
while  in  the  second  they  failed.  The  best  evidence  we  have 

«  Weimarer  Ausgabe  XXVII,  113. 


109 

for  believing  that  the  influence  of  this  literature  was  great  on 
public  opinion  is  the  popularity  of  a  number  of  productions. 
Burger's  "Des  Pfarrers  Tochter  von  Taubenhain,"  for  ex- 
ample, became  so  popular  with  the  people  of  a  part  of  Germany 
that  it  soon  became  a  folk-song  and  was  included  as  such  in 
"Des  Knaben  Wunderhorn"  under  the  title  "Des  Pfarrers 
Tochter  von  Taubenheim."  Schiller's  "Die  Kindesmor- 
derin"  had  a  similar  fate,  except  that  instead  of  one  populari- 
zation Erk  and  Bohme's  collection  of  folk-songs  brings  seven 
variations  of  the  popular  form  of  Schiller's  rather  long  poem. 
What  is  more,  these  variations  were  sung  over  the  length  and 
breadth  of  Germany  for  more  than  two  decades.  And  why  did 
the  Berlin  police  forbid  the  staging  of  Wagner's  "Die  Kinder- 
morderinn  "?  Certainly  it  can  not  be  attributed  to  the  danger 
that  the  players  would  be  compelled  to  play  to  an  empty 
house.  It  cannot  be  proved  that  the  grossness  which  is  so  evi- 
dent in  these  productions  kept  people  from  reading  them  or 
that  they  failed  to  influence  public  opinion. 

When  we  come  to  consider  these  productions  as  esthetic 
literature  quite  a  different  story  is  to  be  told.  Justus  Moser 
in  passing  criticism  on  the  essay  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
entitled  "Essay  on  the  German  language  and  literature," 
said:  ''Even  the  Klingers,  the  Lenzes  and  the  Wagners  in 
some  respects  showed  the  strength  of  Hercules."  The  greatest 
of  the  conservative  jurists  of  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  hereby  recognized  the  literary  merit  of  those  who 
helped  to  abolish  the  evils  which  drove  unmarried  mothers  to 
infanticide.  After  a  century  and  a  half  the  most  truly  dra- 
matic treatment  of  the  theme  of  unmarried  motherhood  termi- 
nating in  infanticide,  the  Gretchen  tragedy  in  Goethe's 
"Faust,"  still  continues  to  appeal  to  readers  the  world  over. 
In  Germany  today  this  literary  production  is  second  only  to 
the  Bible  in  popularity.  And  this  poetic  treatment  was  born 
out  of  the  travail  of  the  revolt.  And  there  are — just  as  Moser 
asserted — scenes,  stanzas  or  passages  in  the  other  productions 
of  the  period  which  could  be  read  universally  with  keen  literary 
pleasure.  The  portrayal  of  the  emotions  which  drove  un- 
married mothers  to  infanticide  belongs  to  the  most  stupendous 


110 

of  literary  undertakings.  The  fear  of  the  ridicule  of  parents, 
of  friends,  of  church  and  state,  of  damnation  in  hell,  despair 
coupled  with  a  state  of  mind  which  was  filled  with  superstition, 
jealousy  of  another  girl,  the  dark  outlook  for  the  future  of  the 
illegitimate  child,  the  prospect  of  being  the  greatest  outcast 
of  society,  where  in  all  literature  is  material  more  truly  dra- 
matic than  this?  And  such  emotions  were  portrayed  with 
considerable  skill  by  the  writers  of  the  Storm  and  Stress  and 
in  this  we  find  the  only  reason  for  believing  that  their  writings 
exerted  a  beneficent  influence. 

But  with  the  exception  of  Goethe's  "Faust" — the  work  of 
an  immortal  artist,  whose  superior  artistry  may  well  be  taken 
for  granted — all  the  literature  on  the  unmarried  mother,  which 
I  reviewed  in  the  preceding  chapter,  has  been  forgotten.  It  is 
used  only  as  material  for  scholarly  investigation.  Cultured 
Germans  do  not  now  think  of  reading  Schiller's  "  Die  Kindes- 
morderin,"  or  Burger's  "Des  Pfarrers  Tochter  von  Tauben- 
hain"  and  much  less  Sprickmann's  "Ida"  for  purely  literary 
pleasure.  Even  in  the  days  of  the  Storm  and  Stress  sensible 
people,  while  realizing  fully  the  seriousness  of  the  fact  of  in- 
fanticide and  the  necessity  of  correcting  the  agencies  which 
facilitated  it,  nevertheless  revolted  against  the  misuse  of 
poetic  license.  Why  else  should  Boie  write  to  Lenz  when  the 
latter 's  "  Die  Soldaten  "  came  out :  "  I — you  will  laugh  at  me — 
think  that  the  colors  are  too  glaring  here  and  there."  Or 
why  did  Schubart  change  the  title  of  his  poem  "Das  schwan- 
gere  Madchen"  to  "Minchen  am  Grabe  ihrer  Mutter,"  and 
in  the  revision  leave  out  all  the  gross  elements?  Or  why  did 
Sprickmann  throw  overboard  his  plan  of  a  drama  in  which 
the  crying  babe  was  to  send  home  the  terrified  audience  with 
its  pitiful  wailing  and  substitute  a  drama,  "Der  Schmuck," 
with  its  peaceable  solution?  Or  why  was  it  necessary  at  all 
for  Wagner  and  Klinger  to  defend  the  use  of  so  much  grossness 
in  their  productions?  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  even 
Schiller's  "Die  Kindesmorderin "  was  the  product  of  mistaken 
ideas  about  tragic  art.  For  in  1805,  when  the  drawings  by 
Schnorr  were  shown  to  him  he  said:  "They  all  meet  with  my 
approval  except  that  one  of  the  infanticide,  which  I  cannot 


Ill 

approve  because  of  the  subject-matter."  The  drawing 
brought  out  clearly  the  youthful  poet's  mistake  in  placing 
too  much  emphasis  on  the  horrifying  elements  in  the  exe- 
cution motif. 

Most  of  the  writers  of  this  period  failed  to  realize  that  the  dis- 
gusting and  horrible,  while  they  are  to  be  found  in  real  life,  when 
emphasized  can  never  be  effective  art.  The  province  of  art 
is  to  attract,  to  ennoble,  to  lift  up,  to  emphasize  the  beautiful, 
not  to  repel,  to  drag  down,  to  debase,  to  stress  the  horrible. 
Enduring  art,  it  is  true,  always  reveals  the  spirit  of  the  age 
in  which  it  was  produced,  but  it  is  well  to  remember  that  the 
emphasis  is  placed  on  the  spirit  and  not  on  the  portrayal  of 
the  repellent  and  offensive  details.  Writers  of  the  Storm 
and  Stress  mistook  the  province  of  art,  they  even  failed  to 
understand  human  nature  which,  when  sublimity  is  sought, 
always  rebels  against  the  exposition  of  the  gross  and  the  hor- 
rible. With  Goethe  it  was  different.  He  was  able  so  to  por- 
tray the  tragedy  of  Gretchen  as  to  make  it  attractive  to 
readers  the  world  over,  he  enlisted  the  sympathy  of  men  and 
inspired  them  with  the  noble  purpose  of  lifting  up  hapless 
unmarried  mothers  by  emphasizing  the  beauty  and  sanctity 
of  motherhood,  be  it  married  or  unmarried.  He  portrayed 
the  emotions  of  an  unmarried  mother,  he  did  not  give  a 
minute  description  of  repulsive  details.  In  short  Goethe  em- 
bodied in  the  Gretchen  tragedy  the  sympathy  of  the  eighteenth 
century  for  a  creature  who  had  been  wronged  for  more  than 
a  thousand  years.  This  in  part  at  least  explains  why  of  all 
the  many  productions  of  the  Storm  and  Stress  his  alone  has 
survived  and  has  become  a  contribution  to  world  literature. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  following  bibliography  includes  the  literature  on  un- 
married motherhood,  using  the  term  literature  in  the  broader 
sense,  of  the  period  1770—1800,  and  the  literature  which  was 
used  to  get  the  necessary  background  for  an  understanding  of 
the  history  and  development  of  the  revolt.  With  a  few  excep- 
tions only  the  literature  which  could  be  had  in  this  country  is 
listed,  therefore  no  claim  to  completeness  of  the  list  of  pro- 
ductions on  unmarried  motherhood  during  this  period  is  made. 

Abegg,    "Beitrage   zur   Geschichte   der   Strafrechtspflege   in 
Schlesien  im  15.  und   16.  Jahrhundert."     In  Zeitschrift 
fiir  deutsches  Recht,  Tubingen,  XVIII,  423^ 
"Ueber    das    Erforderniss    der    Lebensfahigkeit    bei    dem 
Thatbestande  der  Kindstotung  mit  Riicksicht  auf  die 
neueren  Strafgesetzgebungen."     In  the  same  magazine, 
XIX. 
Adelung,    J.    C.,    "Ueber    den    Deutschen    Styl."      Berlin, 

1785,  II,  149. 

Alemannia,  XVIII,  52,  "Erinnerung  an  Jus  Talionis.  Motiv 
von  der  littauischen  Kindermorderin."  XXVII,  247- 
297,  "Die  Kindermorde  zu  Benzhausen  und  Waldkirch 
im  Breisgau.  Ein  Gedicht  aus  dem  Anfang  des  16. 
Jahrhunderts." 
Allgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek,  Berlin  und  Stettin. 

72,  374:  Aepli,  "Mittel  wider  den  Kindermord." 
48,   95:     "Das   beste   ausfuhrbare   Mittel   wider   den 
Kindermord."     Dresden,  1781. 

66,  89:    Die  neue  Gometz.     II,  Part  3,  Leipzig,  1785. 
63,  81:    "Drei  Preisschriften  iiber  die  Frage:   Welche 
sind  die  besten  ausfuhrbarsten  Mittel,  dem  Kindermorde 
abzuhelfen,  ohne  die  Unzucht  zu  begiinstigen."     Mann- 
heim bey  Schwan,  1784. 

54,  109:    "Fragmente   iiber  die  Frage:    Welches  sind 
112 


113 

die  besten  ausfuhrbaren  Mittel,  dem  Kindermord  Einhalt 
zu  thun?"  Frankfurt  und  Leipzig,  1782. 

52,  478:  "Freymiithige  Gedanken  liber  die  Frage: 
Welches  sind  die  besten  ausfuhrbaren  Mittel  dem  Kinder- 
mord Einhalt  zu  thun?  Gottingen,  1781. 

58,  75:  "Freymiithige  Gedanken,  Wiinsche  und  Vor- 
schlage  eines  vaterlandischen  Burgers  iiber  den  Kinder- 
mord, und  die  Mittel  denselben  zu  verhindern,  Teutsch- 
lands  Sohnen  und  Tochtern  gewidmet.  Germanien,  1783. 

48,  96:  Von  Hess,  Ludwig,  "Eine  Antwort  auf  die 
Preisfrage:  Welches  sind  die  besten  ausfuhrbaren  Mittel 
dem  Kindermorde  Einhalt  zu  thun?"  Hamburg,  1780. 

54,  175:  Irwing,  K.  F.,  "Fragment  der  Naturmoral, 
oder  Betrachtungen  iiber  die  natiirlichen  Mittel  der 
Gliickseligkeit,  bey  Gelegenheit  der  Mannheimer  Preis- 
aufgabe  tiber  die  Mittel,  dem  Kindermord  Einhalt  zu 
tun."  Berlin,  1782. 

61,  93:  Karner,  "Bittschrift  der  unehelich  erzeugten 
Burger  Teutschlands  an  die  teutsche  Landesherrn."  1783. 

59»  395 :  List,  G.  D.  K.,  "Ueber  Hurerey  und  Kinder- 
mord." Mannheim,  1784. 

52,  478:  May,  F.,  "  Vorbeugungsmittel  wider  den 
Kindermord,  fur  Seelsorger,  El  tern,  Polizeyverwalter, 
usw."  Mannheim,  1781. 

Anhang  I  to  37-52,  126:  Miiller,  K.,  "Mittel  wider  den 
Kindermord.  Eine  Beantwortung  der  Mannheimer  Preis- 
aufgabe."  Halle,  1781. 

66,  380:  "Nachtrag  zu  den  Abhandlungen  iiber  die 
besten  ausfuhrbaren  Mittel,  dem  Kindermord  Einhalt  zu 
thun."  Tubingen,  1782. 

54,  113:  "Noch  eine  Meinung  iiber  die  Frage:  Welches 
sind  die  besten  ausfuhrbaren  Mittel,  dem  Kindermord 
Einhalt  zu  thun."  Tubingen,  1783. 

52,478:  Pa tsch,  "Beantwortung  der  Preisfrage:  Wel- 
ches sind  die  besten  ausfuhrbaren  Mittel  dem  Kinder- 
morde Einhalt  zu  thun  ohne  die  Unzucht  zu  begiinsti- 
gen?"  1781. 

60,  109:  Pestalozzi,  J.  H.,  "Ueber  Gesetzgebung  und 
Kindermord."  Frankfurt  und  Leipzig,  1783. 


114 


88,  90:  Pfeil,  J.  G.  B.,  "  Preisschrift  von  den  besten 
und  ausfiihrbarsten  Mitteln,  dem  Kindermord  abzuhelfen, 
ohne  die  Unzucht  zu  begiinstigen,  mit  Zusatzen  und 
einem  sechsfachen  Anhang  dahin  einschlagender  Mate- 
rien."  Leipzig,  1788. 

85»  I55^-:  " Rasonnements,  Paradoxen,  Charaktere, 
Projecten  und  Vorreden  ohne  Buch."  Berlin,  1786. 

H3»  55*--  Rathlef,  E.  L.  M.,  "  Vom  Geiste  der  Criminal- 
gesetze."  Bremen,  1790. 

67,  404:  "  Reflektionen  iiber  Schwangerung,  Hur- 
kinder  und  Ehelosigkeit  des  iSten  Jahrhunderts."  1785. 

48,  98:  Sporl,  C.  C.,  "  Beantwortung  der  Mannheimi- 
schen  Preisfrage:  Welches  sind  die  besten  ausfuhrbaren 
Mittel  dem  Kindermorde  Einhalt  zu  thun?"  Miihl- 
hausen,  1781. 

54,  112:  Schlegel,  G.,  "Mittel  zur  Verhutung  des 
Kindermords,  bey  Gelegenheit  der  Mannheimischen 
Aufgabe  und  zur  allgemeinen  Beforderung  der  Tugend, 
mit  andern  die  Sittlichkeit  und  Strafen  betreffenden 
Betrachtungen  aufgesezt."  Dessau  und  Leipzig,  1783. 

52,  isof.:  Schwager,  J.  M.,  "Beytrage  zur  Bildung 
deutscher  Burger,  in  lehrreichen  und  unterhaltenden 
Aufsatzen."  Leipzig,  1781. 

62,  70:  Von  Soden,  J.  F.,  "Geist  der  teutschen  Crimi- 
nalgesetze."  Dessau,  1783. 

54,  92:  "Ueber  den  Kindermord.  Hingeworfene  Ge- 
danken  eines  Nichtfacultisten."  Frankfurt  am  Mayn, 
1782. 

62,  304:  "Ueber  Empfindeley  und  Kraftgenies,  Mode- 
vorurtheile  und  Schimpfreden,  auch  einige  ernste  Gegen- 
stande."  I,  3,  Dessau  und  Leipzig,  1783. 

72,  609:  Veltusen,  J.  C.,  "Beytrage  tiber  Kindermord, 
usw."  Wien,  1785. 

54,  in:  "Versuche  tiber  die  Mittel  wider  den  Kinder- 
mord. Auf  Veranlassung  der  Mannheimer  Preisfrage. 
Von  einem  Kriminalrichter."  Berlin  und  Stralsund, 
1782. 

52,  478:  "Versuch  iiber  die  Beantwortung  der  Preis- 
frage: Welches  sind  etc."  Nurnberg,  1781. 


115 

Cf.  also  Anhang  to  37-52,  128. 

47,  306:   "Von  den  Mitteln  dem  Kindermord  Einhalt 
zu  thun." 

47,  306:  "Von  den  Strafen  der  Geschwachten."     Pub- 
lished in  Schwdbisches  Magazin  von  gelehrten  Sachen.    1 780. 
57,  102:    "Von  Strafen  unehelicher  Schwangerungen, 
usw."     Erlangen,   1783. 

79,  406:    "Vom  Kindermord  und  dessen  Verhiitung." 
Frankfurt  und  Leipzig,  1787. 

57,  142 :  "  Vorschlage  einiger  Mittel  zur  Verhiitung  des 
Kindermords,  als  Beantwortung  der  deshalb  von  einem 
Menschenfreunde  vorgelegten  Preisfrage."    Leipzig,  1783. 
66,  286:  Discussion   of   an  article  on    infanticide    by 
Wekhrlin  in  Der  Chronolog,  XI  and  XII,  1781. 
Allgemeine  Litemtur   Zeitung,  Jena,   1790.     July  5,  III,  41, 
"Kindermord    nicht    Kindermord."     A    review    of    an 
article  in  Almanack  fur  Aerzte  und  Nichtaerzte  auf  das  Jahr 
1790. 

Anonymous,      "  Auf  gef  angene     Nonnenbriefe.       Mit     einem 

Anhange-Charlotte  im  Kerker,  eine  gefiihlvolle  Scene." 

1779.     Cf.  Allgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek,  41,   459.      I 

was  unable  to  obtain  this  production. 

Anzeiger  fur  Kunde  der  deutschen  Vorzeit,  1853,  95;  1854,  114; 

1855,   176. 

Archiv  des  Criminalrechts .     Herausgegeben  von  E.  F.  Klein 

und    G.    A.    Kleinschrod.     Halle,    1798-1849.     "Acten- 

massige   Geschichte    einiger    Kindesmorderinnen"    runs 

through  a  series  of  volumes.      See  especially  I,   II,   III. 

H.  L.  W.  B.,  "Abgekiirzte  Reflexionen  iiber  den  Nuzen  oder 

Schaden    der    Todesstrafen."     In    Deutsches    Museum, 

I7762,  947. 

Barkhausen,  Viktor,  "Ueber  Abschaffung  der  Todesstrafen." 

In  Deutsches  Museum,  IJJ62,  667  fi. 
"  Erlauterungen    iiber    die    Todesstrafen."     In    Deutsches 

Museum,  I7772,  336 ff. 

Beccaria,  Cesare  Bonesana  Marchese  di,  "Dei  delitti  e  delle 
pene."  English  translation,  "An  essay  on  Crimes  and 
Punishment."  London,  1788. 


116 

Buchholz,    "Bettina."     In    Deutsches    Museum,    I7772,    231. 
Burger,   G.  A.,  "Sammtliche  Werke."     Gottingen,   1829.     I, 

73,    "Des    armen    Suschens    Traum "    (1773);    I,    94f., 

"Neue   weltliche    hochdeutsche    Reime,    usw."    (1773); 

I,    132,    "Der   Ritter   und    sein  Liebchen "     (1775);   II, 

160,    "Hummel-Lied"    (1789);    II,    29,    "Des    Pfarrers 

Tochter    von    Taubenhain "     (1781);     II,     142,    "Graf 

Walter    (Nach  dem  Alt-Englischen) " ;    II,   213,    "Der 

wohlgesinnte  Liebhaber." 
"G.  A.  Burger  in  Gottingen  und  Gelliehausen."     Karl  Goe- 

deke,  Hannover,  1873.     See  especially  p.  92f. 
Cella,    J.    J.,     "Freymiithige    Aufsatze."     Anspach,     1784. 
Claudius,  Matthias,  "Schonheit  und  Unschuld.     Ein  Sermon 

an  die  Madchen."     In  "Sammtliche  Werke  des  Wands- 

becker  Boten."     Gotha,  1882,  I,  275. 
"Commentatio    succincta    in     Constitutionem     Criminalem 

Caroli  V.  Imperatoris,  etc."     Hannover,  1736. 
Cramer,    C.,    "Der    kluge    Mann."     Leipzig,    1801,    Dritter 

Theil. 
Falk,  Franz,  "Die  Ehe  am  Ausgange  des  Mittelalters.     Eine 

Kirchen-  und   Kultur-historische   Studie."     Freiburg  im 

Breisgau,  1908. 
Forster,    Georg,     "Sammtliche    Schriften."     Herausgegeben 

von  dessen  Tochter  und  begleitet  mit  einer  Charakteristik 

Forster 's    von    G.    G.    Gervinus.     Leipzig,     1843.     II, 

"Johann  Reinhold  Forster 's  und  Georg  Forster 's  Reise 

um  die  Welt  in  den  Jahren  1772  bis  1775."     P.  ioif. 
"Oeuvres  de  Frederic  le  Grand."     Berlin,  Decker,  1846-56. 

See  especially  IX,  30,  "  Dissertation  sur  les  raisons  d'etab- 

lir  ou  d'abroger  les  lois." 

"Friedrich  der  Grosse."     J.  D.  E.  Preuss.     Berlin,   1832. 
Freisen,    J.,    "Geschichte    des    Canonischen    Eherechts    bis 

zum    Verfall    der    Glossenlitteratur."     Tubingen,    1888. 
Froitzheim,  J.,  "Goethe  und  Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner,  Ein 

Wort  der  Kritik  an  unsere  Goethe-Forscher."     Strass- 

burg,  1889. 
"Zu  Strassburgs  Sturm-  und  Drangperiode.     1770-1776." 

Strassburg,  1888. 


117 

Gemmingen,    O.    H.    F.    von,    "Der   deutsche    Hausvater." 

First    published    in    1780.     1782    edition    reprinted    in 

"Deutsche  Nationallitteratur,"  139. 
Geschichte   und   Erzdhlungen,    Danzig,    1772-1778.     II,    162, 

"Ein  Brief  iiber  die  herrschenden  Laster  unsers  Zeital- 

ters." 
Gockingk,  L.  F.  G.,  "Jungfer  Kamerohn  und  ihr  Nachbar." 

In  " Sinngedichte "  p.  75.     First  published  in   Taschen- 

buchfur  Dichter  und  Dichterfreunde,  I,  139. 
Goethe,   J.   W.,   "Werke.     Herausgegeben  im  Auftrage  der 

Grossherzogin  Sophie   von    Sachsen."     Weimar,    1887-. 

I,    I,    186,    "Vor    Gericht."     Cf.   Idem,  p.   365.;   I,    14, 

"Faust  I."     XXI,  67f.,  Wilhelm  Meisters  Lehrjahre. 
"  Der  junge  Goethe."     Neue  Ausgabe  in  sechs  Banden  besorgt 

von   Max  Morris.     Leipzig,    1910.     II,  62,    uDas  Lied 

vom  Herrn  von  Falkenstein " ;  II,  68,   "Das  Lied  vom 

Herren  und  der  Magd";  II,  80,  "Das  Lied  vom  braun 

Annel";  II,  "Die  Spinnerin." 
"Goethe    im    Conseil.     Urkundliches    aus    seiner    amtlichen 

Thatigkeit    1778-1785."     B.     Suphan.     In     Vierteljahr- 

schrift  fur  Litter  aturgeschichte,  Weimar,  1893,  VI,  597. 
Gotz,  J.  N.,  "Klymene  vor  Gericht."     In  "Vermischte  Ge- 

dichte."     Hrsg.  von  K.  W.  Ramler,   Mannheim,   1785, 

Pt-  3,  9i. 
Grimm,  J.,   "Deutsche  Rechtsalterthumer."     Leipzig,   1889. 

See  especially  Vol.  II. 
Rebel,  J.  P.,  " Das heimliche Gericht."     In  "Werke"  Deutsche 

Nationallitteratur,  142,  part  2,  292. 
Herder,   J.   G.,    "Ausgewahlte  Werke."     In    Cotta'sche  Bib- 

liothek  der  Weltliteratur,  II,  37,  "Wiegenlied    einer    un- 

glucklichen  Mutter";  II,  67,   "O  weh,  o  wen";  II,  198, 

"Klosterlied";    II,    301,    "Ftir    die    Priesterehe."     Ill, 

233f.,  Von  den  Vortheilen  und  Nachtheilen  der  heutigen 

Studiermethode. " 
Hess,   Ludwig,  von,    "Freymuthige  Gedanken  iiber  Staats- 

sachen."     Hamburg,  1775. 
Hippel,    T.    G.,    "Sammtliche    Werke."     Berlin,    1828,    V, 

"Ueber  die  Ehe"   (1774);  VI,   "Ueber  die  burgerliche 


118 

Verbesserung  der  Weiber"  (1792);  XI,  "Ueber  Gesetz- 

gebung  und  Staatenwohl";  Idem,   "Nachricht  die  von 

K*sche    Untersuchung    betreffend.     Ein     Beitrag    iiber 

Verbrechen  und  Strafen"  (1793). 
Hermes,  J.  T.,  "Sophiens  Reise  von  Memel  nach  Sachsen." 

Leipzig,  1776,  Vol.  I,  62of. 
Hamann,   J.    G.,    "Versuch   einer    Sibylle    iiber    die    Ehe" 

(1775).     In  "Schriften,"  Berlin,  1823,  IV,  223f. 
Holty,  L.  H.  C.,  "Gedichte,"  Konigsberg  und  Leipzig,  1833. 

I,  41,  "Die  Nonne";  I,   16,   "Adelstan  und  Roschen." 
Iselin,  Isaak,  "Gedanken  iiber  den  Kindermord."     In  Ephe- 

meriden    der    Menschheit,    1778,   Viertes  Stuck.     I   was 

unable   to   obtain    this.     Cf.    Allgemeine   Deutsche   Bib- 

liothek,  39,  588. 
Jung-Stilling,    "Heinrich    Stillings    Jugend    und    Jiinglings- 

jahre."     In  Bibliothek  der  deutschen  Klassiker,  IX. 
Kant,    L,    "  Sammtliche   Werke."     Leipzig,    1867,    IV,    159, 

"  Beantwortung  der  Frage;  Was  ist  Aufklarung"  (1784); 

VII,    149,    "Die   Metaphysik   der   Sitten.     Vom   Straf- 

und  Begnadigungsrecht "  (1797). 
Katz,  Edwin,  "Ein  Grundriss  des  kanonischen  Strafrechts." 

Berlin  und  Leipzig,  1881. 
Keckeis,  Gustav,  "Dramaturgische  Probleme  im  Sturm  und 

Drang."     Bern,  1907. 
Kindleben,  C.  W.,   "Studen ten-Lexicon."     Halle,   1781.     In 

"Bibliothek  litterarischer  und  culturhistorischer  Selten- 

heiten."     Leipzig,  1899,  No.  7. 
Klinger,    F.     M.,     "Sammtliche    philosophische    Romane." 

Leipzig,   1810.     I  and  II,   "Fausts  Leben,  Thaten  und 

Hollenfahrt." 
"Sammtliche    Werke."     Stuttgart    und    Tubingen,    1842. 

I  and  II,  dramas,  "Aristodemos,"  "Damokles." 
Klippstein,  see  Pfeil. 
Knapp,  H.,  "Das  alte  Niirnberger  Kriminalverfahren  bis  zur 

Einfiihrung  der  Carolina."     Miinchen,  1892. 
Koster,  A.,  "Die  allgemeinen  Tendenzen  der  Geniebewegung 

im  1 8.  Jahrhundert." 
Kreuzfeld,  see  Pfeil. 


119 


Lenz,  J.  M.  R.,  "Gesammelte  Schriften."  Hrsg.  von  Ludwig 
Tieck,  Berlin,  1828.  I,  "Der  Hofmeister"  and  "Die 
Soldaten";  III,  "Zerbin."  The  latter  was  published  for 
the  first  time  in  Deutsches  Museum,  I7761,  116-131  and 

193-207. 

Lenz,  J.  M.  R.,  "Ueber  die  Soldatenehen.  Nach  der  Hand- 
schrift  der  Berliner  Koniglichen  Bibliothek  zum  ersten 
Male  herausgegeben  von  Karl  Freye."  Leipzig,  1914. 

Laukhard,  F.  C.,  "Der  Wild  und  Rheingraf  Carl  Magnus" 
(1798).  Herausgegeben  von  Viktor  Petersen,  Stutt- 
gart, 1911. 

Leyser,    " Meditationes   ad    pandectas."     Ed.    3,    IX,    6981. 

List,  G.  D.  K.,  "Ueber  Hurerey  und  Kindermord."  Mann- 
heim, 1784. 

Maurer,  Konrad,  "Ueber  die  Wasserweihe  des  germanischen 
Heidenthumes."  Mtinchen,  1880. 

Meissner,    A.    G.,    "Lied    einer    Gefallenen."     In  Deutsches 

Museum,  I7791,  379. 
"Die  Morderin."     In  Idem,  I7791,  380. 
"Romische   Annalen."     In    Taschenbuch  fur   Dichter   und 
Dichterfreunde,   VI,   67.     In   Idem,    IX,    15,    "Das  ver- 
liebte    Biirgermadchen "    (1778).     Idem,    X,    63,    "Lied 
von  der  schwarzen  Lise  aus  Kastilien." 
"Ja  wohl  hat  sie  es  nicht  gethan ! "  (1795).     In"  Deutsche 

Litteraturdenkmale,"  66/69,  71- 
"Sammlung  der  Skizzen."     Leipzig,  1796,  IX,  350. 

Meissner,  C.  F.,  "Zwo  Abhandlungen  liber  die  Frage:  Sind 
die  Findel-Hauser  vorteilhaft  oder  schadlich?"  Got- 
tingen,  1779. 

Mendelssohn,  Moses,  "Gibt  es  natiirliche  Anlagen  zum  Las- 
ter?"  In  "Gesammelte  Schriften,"  V,  678. 

Miller,  J.  M.,  "Siegwart,  Eine  Klostergeschichte "  (1775- 
1776).  Stuttgart,  1844. 

Montesquieu,  C.  L.,  "Spirit  of  laws  translated  from  the 
French  by  Mr.  Nugent."  3d  ed.,  London,  1758. 

Moser,  Justus,  "Sammtliche  Werke."  Berlin,  1798.  II, 
163,  "Ueber  die  zu  unsern  Zeiten  verminderte  Schande 
der  Huren  und  Hurkinder";  IV,  118,  "Ueber  den  Un- 


120 

terschied  einer  christlichen  und  biirgerlichen  Ehe";  IV, 
123,  "Von  den  Militair-Ehen  der  Englander";  VII,  208, 
"Der  Colibat  der  Geistlichkeit  von  seiner  politischen 
Seite  betrachtet";  IV,  130,  "Ueber  die  Todesstrafen " ; 
"  Patriotische  Phantasien,"  Berlin,  1842-43;  V,  118, 
"Von  der  Tortur";  V,  97,  "Von  einem  Gebrauche  zu 
Pecking";  V,  107,  "Also  ist  die  Kirchenbusse  so  ganz 
nicht  abzuschaffen." 

Miiller,  F.   (Maler),  "Das  braune  Fraulein."     In  "Sturmer 

und  Dranger."     Hrsg.  von  A.  Sauer.     Ill,  266. 
"Die   Schaafschur"    and    "Das    Nusskernen."     In    "Bib- 
liothek  der  deutschen  Klassiker,"  VIII,  696  and  720. 

"Maler  Miiller."     Bernhard  Seuffert.     Berlin,  1877. 

Mylius,  C.,  "Corpus  Constitutionum  Marchicarum,  etc." 
"Novum  Corpus  Constitutionum  Prussico-Brandenbur- 
gensium,  etc."  I  was  unable  to  obtain  this,  but  it  is  im- 
portant because  it  contains  the  decrees  of  Frederick  the 
Great.  Cf.  Preuss,  J.  D.  E.,  "Friedrich  der  Grosse." 
Berlin,  1832. 

Nassovia:  Zeitschrift  fur  nassauische  Geschichte  und  Heimat- 
kunde.  Wiesbaden,  XI 1 1,  249:  Spielmann,  C.,  "Kindes- 
mord  und  seine  Bestrafung  im  17.  Jahrhunderte" ;  IX, 
146,  Sandmann,  E.,  "Peinliches  Recht." 

Neue  Bibliothek  der  schonen  Wissenschaften  und  der  freyen 
Kiinste,  XXII,  75,  contains  an  important  review  of  Lenz's 
"Zerbin." 

Nicolai,  C.  F.,  "Politische  und  moralische  Betrachtungen 
iiber  die  Spartanische  Gesetzgebung  des  Lykurgus." 
In  Brief e  die  neueste  Litteratur  betreffend.  Berlin,  1765, 
XXII,  129. 

Pestalozzi,  J.  H.,  "Ueber  Gesetzgebung  und  Kindermord. 
Nachforschungen  und  Bilder.  Wahrheiten  und  Traume. 
Geschrieben  1780.  Herausgegeben  1783."  Frankfurt 
und  Leipzig.  In  "Samtliche  Werke."  Hrsg.  von  L. 
W.  Seyffarth.  Liegnitz,  1900,  Vol.  V. 

Pfeffel,  G.  K.,  "Die  Erkennung."  In  Taschenbuch  fur  Dichter 
und  Dichterfreunde,  IV,  116. 

Pfeil,   Klippstein  and   Kreuzfeld,    "Drei   Preisschriften   iiber 


121 

die    Frage:     Welches    sind    die    besten    ausfiihrbarsten 

Mittel  dem  Kindermorde  abzuhelfen,  ohne  die  Unzucht 

zu  begiinstigen?"     Mannheim,   1784. 
Der    neue    Pitaval.     Eine    Sammlung    der    interessantesten 

Criminalgeschichten  aller  Lander  aus  alterer  und  neuerer 

Zeit.     Leipzig,    1857-1890.     This   contains   a   record   of 

many  cases  of  infanticide  committed  in  the  seventeenth 

and  eighteenth  centuries. 
Runde,  J.   F.,   "Die  Rechtmassigkeit  der  Todesstrafen  aus 

Grundsazen  des  allgemeinen  Staatsrechts  vertheidigt." 

In  Deutsches  Museum,  I7771,  309. 
Schummel,  J.  G.,  "Empfindsame  Reisen  durch  Deutschland." 

Wittenberg,   1770-1772. 
Schiller,    J.    C.    F.,    "Samtliche   Werke."     Sakular-Ausgabe, 

Stuttgart    und    Berlin,    I,    30,    "Die    Kindesmorderin " ; 

VIII,    222,    "Die    Polizei."     For    many    imitations    of 

Schiller's  poem  see  Erk-Bohme,  "Deutscher  Liederhort," 

I,  185. 
Schink,  J.  F.,  "  Empfindungen  einer  ungliicklich  Verfiihrten." 

Published  in  Almanack  der  deutschen  Musen,  1777,  279. 

I  was  not  able  to  obtain  this.     Cf.  Erich  Schmidt,  "  Hein- 

rich  Leopold  Wagner.     Goethes  Jugendgenosse,"   1879, 

p.  91. 
Schlosser,  J.  G.,  "Die  Wudbianer,  Eine  nicht  gekronte  Preiss- 

schrift  iiber  die  Frage:   Wie  ist  der  Kindermord  zu  ver- 

hindern,  ohne  die  Unzucht  zu  befordern?"     Basel,  1785. 

In  "Kleine  Schriften,"  IV. 
Schlozer,  A.  L.,  Briefwechsel.     Gottingen,  1780-1782. 

Stats- Anzeigen,  Gottingen,  1782-1793. 
Schmidt,  Erich,  See  Wagner. 
Schmidt,    K.,    "Wiegenlied    einer    ungliicklichen    Mutter." 

In  Musenalmanach  fur  1787.     Voss  und  Gocking,  p.  15. 
Schubart,    C.    F.    D.,    ^  Gesammelte  Schriften."     Stuttgart, 

1839.     VI,  145,  "Beispiel  einer  altvaterischen  Tugend" 

(1774),  VI,  148,  "EtwasSonderbares"  (1774). 
"Das  schwangere  Madchen."     In  "Stunner  und  Dranger," 

HI,  353- 
"Gesammelte  Schriften  und  Schicksale."     Stuttgart,  1839, 


122 

IV,    147  >    "Minchen   beim   Grabe   ihrer   Mutter.'"'     IV, 

330,  "Lina  an  die  Unschuld." 
"Leben  in  seinen  Briefen."     Berlin,  1849. 
"Hannchen    an    Wilhelm."     In    "Sammtliche    Gedichte." 

Stuttgart,  1842,  II,  702. 
Schweizer-Blatt,  Zurich,  1782.     Pestalozzi  published  parts  of 

his  essay  on  infanticide  in  this  magazine.     I  was  not  able 

to  obtain  it. 
"Single  Life  discouraged  for  the  Publick  Utility:  or,  an  essay 

on  Ways  and  Means  for  the  Supplies  of  the  Government." 

London,   1761. 
Sonnenfels,  J.  v.,  "Grundsatze  der  Polizey,  Handlung,  und 

Finanzwissenschaft."     Miinchen,   1787. 
Spangenberg,    Ernst,    "David     Georg    Strube's     Rechtliche 

Bedenken.     Systematisch  geordnet,   erganzt,   berechtigt 

und    mit    Anmerkungen    begleitet."     Hannover,    1828, 

III,  31. 
Sprickmann,  A.  M.,  "Das  Neujahrsgeschenk.     Eine  Kloster- 

anekdote."    In  Deutsches    Museum,    I7762,    788;    "Das 

Strumpfband,  eine  Klosterscene."     In  Idem,  I7762,  1083; 

"Ida."     In  Idem,   I7771,   120;  "Horry.     Eine  tragische 

Scene."     In  Idem,  I7781,  i;  "Mariens    Reden  bei  ihrer 

Trauung.     Ein  Fragment."     In  Idem,  I7782,  232. 
Staudlin,    G.    F.,    "Die    Missethaterin   an   ihren   Saugling." 

In  Deutsche  Nationalliteratur,  135,  4iQf. 
"Seltha,  die  Kindesmorderin."     Published  in  Schwdbisches 

Magazin  fur  1781.     I  was  not  able  to  obtain  this  poem. 

Cf.  Weltrich,  R.,  "Friedrich  Schiller."     Stuttgart,  1885, 

P-  534- 
Stelzer,   C.  J.   L.,   "  Christinchen "    (1780).     In   Taschenbuch 

fur  Dichter  und  Dichterfreunde,  II,  61. 
Sturz,  H.  P.,  "Ueber  Linguets  Vertheidigung  der  Todesstra- 

fen  "    (1776).     In  "  Bibliothek  der  deutschen  Klassiker," 

VI,  709- 
Stuve,  R.,  "Nachrichten  von  der  Frankfurtischen  Garnison- 

schule;  nebst  Vorschlagen  iiber  die  Soldatenehen."     In 

Berlinische  Monatsschrift,  V,  213. 
Sumner,  W.  G.,  "Folkways."     Boston,  1907. 


123 

Siissmilch,  J.  P.,  "Die  gottliche  Ordnung  in  den  Verander- 

ungen  des  menschlichen  Geschlechts."     Berlin,   1761. 
Thiimmel,  M.  A.  v.,  " Sammtliche  Werke."     Leipzig,  1839, 

II,   if.;  VI,   "Die  Reise  in  die  mittaglichen  Provinzen 

von  Frankreich."     (1772-1791.) 
Uz,  J.  P.,  "Die  alten  und  die  heutigen  deutschen  Sitten  "  in 

"Sammtliche  poetische  Werke."    -Carlsruhe,  1776,  II,  56. 
Volkersamen,    J.,    "Politische   Vorschlag,    dem    Kindermord 

ohne  alle  Strafen  und  ohne  dass  der  Ftirst  mit  Erbauung 

eines  Findelhauses  beschwert  werde,  sicher  vorzubeugen." 

See  Erich  Schmidt,  "Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner."     1875, 

p.  60.     I  was  not  able  to  obtain  this  essay. 
Wagner,  H.  L.,  "Die  Kindermorderinn  "  (1776).     In  "Deut- 
sche Litteraturdenkmale  des  18.  und  19.  Jahrhunderts." 

Heilbronn,  XIII. 
"Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner.  Goethes  Jugendgenosse."     Erich 

Schmidt,  Jena,  1875,  2  ed.,  1879. 
Wehrli,  Julius,   "Der  Kindsmord;  dogmatisch-kritische  Stu- 

die."     Frauenfeld,  1889. 

Wainlud,  Samuel,  "Die  Kindestotung."     Berlin,  1905. 
Wilke,   "Kindesmord  bei  Naturvolkern  der  Gegenwart  und 

Vergangenheit."     Braunschweig,    1898.     In   Globus,    74, 

No.  13,  211. 
Willensbiicher,    Ferdinand,    "Die    strafrechtsphilosophischen 

Anschauungen  Friedrichs  des  Grossen."     Breslau,  1904. 
Wilutzky,  Paul,  "  Vorgeschichte  des  Rechts."     Breslau,  1903, 

Vol.  II. 
Wucherer,  W.  F.,  "Julie  oder  die  gerettete  Kindsmorderinn  " 

(1782).    I  was  not  able  to  obtain  this  production.     Cf. 

Erich  Schmidt,  "  Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner."     1875,  P-  59- 
Zander,    F.,    "Unmut.     An    Minna."     In    Musenalmanach, 

1779,  Gottingen,  bey  Dietrich.     This  poem  is  ascribed  to 

Burger. 
Zoepfl,    Heinrich,    "Die    Peinliche    Gerichtsordnung   Kaiser 

Karl's  V.  nebst  der  Bamberger  und  der  Brandenburger 

Halsgerichtsordnung."     Heidelberg,  1842. 
Zorn,  J.,  "Die  Motive  der  Sturm-  and  Drang  Dramatiker, 

eine  Untersuchung   ihrer   Herkunft  und  Entwicklung." 

Bonn,  1909. 


INDEX. 


Abegg,  31,  112. 

Adelung,  J.  C.,  112. 

Aepli,  112. 

Alemannia,  32,  112. 

Allgemeine  Deutsche  Bibliothek,  5,  6, 

40,  42,  59,  66,  67,  112,  115,  118. 
Allgemeine  Liter atur  Zeitung,  115. 
Almanack  der  deutschen  Musen,  121. 
Ambrosius,  15. 
Anna  Amalia,  7. 
Anzeiger  fur  Kunde  der  deutschen 

Vorzeii,  I,  26,  27,  32,  115. 
Archiv  des  Criminalrechts,  8,  115. 
Aristotle,  19. 
Arnim,  52. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  69. 
Augustine,  15,  21,  25. 

Barkhausen,  6,  58,  61,  62,  83,  115. 

Beccaria,  38,  58,  66,  106,  115. 

Berger,  A.  F.  v.,  69. 

Berger,  K.,  4. 

Berlinische    Monatsschrift,    42,    50, 

122. 

Blumauer,  A.,  71,  72. 

Bohme,  109,  121. 

Bohmer,  J.  S.  F.,  32. 

Boie,  3,  73,  no. 

Brentano,  C.,  96. 

Brief wechsel,  4,  5,  7,  61,  66,  67,  106, 

121. 

Brion,  Friederike,  43,  44,  70. 

Buchholz,  81,  116. 

Burger,  2,  3,  6,  8,  9,  10,  54,  69,  70, 
72,  73,  74,  76,  81,  82,  83,  87,  88, 
90,  95,  96,  97,  109,  no,  116,  123. 

Carpzov,  B.,  30. 
Catharine  II.,  37,  38. 
Cella,J.J.,  41,51,116. 


Charles  V.,  9,  29,  30,  31,  116,  123. 
Christ,  15,  24,  25,  62. 
Claproth,  J.,  9. 
Claudius,  M.,  71,  116. 
Coupland,  W.  C.,  62. 
Cramer,  C.,  116. 
Credner,  K.,  2. 
Czerny,  J.,  44. 

Dalberg,  H.  v.,  4. 
Dalberg,  ?.  v.,  5. 
Darwin,  13. 
Decker,  116. 
De  Guimps,  R.,  105. 
Deutsches  Museum,  3,  40,  53,  59,  62, 
65,  76,  80,  83,  94,  115,  119,  121, 

122. 

Diderot,  2,  79. 
Diirr,  67. 

Elias,  J.,  32. 

Engel,  E.,  2,  105. 

Ephemeriden  der  MenschheU,  6,  41, 

118. 

Erdmann,  K.  E.,  9. 
Erk,  109,  121. 
Erxleben,  9. 
Euphorion,  78. 

Falk,  F.,  116. 

Fischer,  F.,  75. 

Flaischlen,  C.,  2,  79. 

Forster,  G.,  116. 

Forster,  J.  H.,  116. 

Frederick  the  Great,  6,  8,  9,  10,  30, 

33-38,  40,  62,  109,  1 1 6,  120. 
Frederick  William  I.,  10,  33,  34. 
Frederick  II.,  31. 
Freisen,  J.,  14,  15,  17,  25,  116. 
Freye,  K.,  40,  75,  119. 


124 


125 


Freytag,  G.,  45. 
Froitzheim,  J.,  8,  10,  47,  116. 

Gemmingen,  2,  70,  77,  78,  79,  81, 

82,  84,  85,  93,  96,  107,  117. 
Gervinus,  G.  G.,  116. 
GescTiichte  und  Erzdhlungen,  117. 
Gockingk,  L.,  117. 

Gocking,  121. 

Goedeke,  K.,  8,  70,  116. 

Goethe,  viii,  I,  2,  5,  6,  8,  10,  n,  28, 
42,  43,  47,  53,  55,  5»,  62,  63,  64, 
65,  66,  70,  75,  79,  81,  83,  91,  94, 
96,  102,  104,  108,  109,  no,  in, 
116,  117,  121,  123. 

Gottingen  Gelehrten  Anzeigen,  67. 

Gotz,  J.  N.,  117. 

Graf,  2,  62. 

Grimm,  J.,  19,  32,  117. 

Hamann,  42,  55,  118. 

Hansen,  J.,  49. 

Hartland,  E.  S.,  12. 

Rebel,  J.  P.,  52,  117. 

Hempel,  F.  F.,  65. 

Herder,  6,  48,  53,  64,  65,  80,  81,  117. 

Hermes,  J.  T.,  2,  42,  47,  48,  49,  55, 

56,  66,  70,  1 1 8. 
Hess,  L.  v.,  5,  49,  57,  59,  61,  66,  67, 

83,  106,  108,  113,  117. 

Hippel,  T.  G.,  8,  44,  49,  55,  66,  70, 

95,  ii7. 

Holty,  8 1,  99,  100,  118. 
Homer,  48. 
Horace,  77. 

Irwing,  K.  F.,  113. 

Iselin,  L,  5,  6,  41,  42,  59,  68,  118. 

Jahresberichte  fur    neuere    deutsche 

Liter aturgeschichte,  32. 
Jakobi,  83. 
Joseph  II.,  37,  105. 
Jung -Stilling,  81,  98,  118. 

Kant,  I.,  6,55,59,  "8. 


Karl  August,  28,  63,  106,  108. 

Karner,  Charlotte,  70. 

Karner,  113. 

Katz,  E.,  1 1 8. 

Keckeis,  G.,  118. 

Kindleben,  C.  W.,  41,  62,  95,  106, 

118. 

Klein,  E.  F.,  115. 
Kleinschrod,  G.  A.,  115. 
Kleist,  v.,  70. 
Kleist,  H.  v.,  54. 

Klinger,  2,  62,  73,  83,  109,  no,  118. 
Klinglin,  8. 
Klippstein,  5,  6,  59,    60,   67,    118, 

1 20. 

Knapp,  H.,  118. 
Knonau,  von  Meyer  v.,  27. 
Koch,  M.,  2. 
Kolblinn,  M.,  10. 
Koster,  A.,  118. 
Kraeger,  H.,  65. 
Kressius,  J.  P.,  31. 
Kreuzfeld,  5,  6,  8,  46,  67,  118,  120. 

Laistner,  L.,  22. 

Laukhard,  27,  28,  47,  51,  108,  119. 

Leibnitz,  34. 

Leisewitz,  65. 

Lenz,  2,  3,  8,  40,  42,  45,  47,  48,  50, 
51,  56,  70,  76,  82,  84,  88,  89,  102, 
103,  108,  109,  no,  119,  120. 

Lessing,  85. 

Leyser,  34,  119. 

Lillo,  G.,  71. 

Linguet,  52,  91- 

List,  G.  D.,  7,  40,  42,  44,  47,  58,  61, 
81,  119. 

Litter atur  und  Theaterzeitung,  78. 

Liudger,  20. 

Louis  XIV.,  10. 

Lycurg,  120. 

Maria  Theresa,  37,  38,  106. 
Maurer,  K.,  19,  21,  22,  119. 
May,  F.,  113. 
McLennan,  J.  F.,  18. 


126 


Meissner,  A.  G.,  3,  63,  70,  76,  77, 
83,  84,  93,  94,  95,  100,  119. 

Meissner,  C.  F.,  63,  67,  119. 

Mendelssohn,  M.,  119. 

Mertens,  T.,  2. 

Michaelis,  5. 

Miller.J.  M.,  65,  87,  99,  119. 

Montesquieu,  38,  119. 

Moore,  E.,  71. 

Morellet,  38. 

Morris,  M.,  117. 

Moser,  J.,  6,  8,  49,  55,  56,  57,  59, 
60,  63,  68,  88,  95,  109,  119. 

Miiller,  F.,  2,  70,  72,  81,  83,  84,  88, 
90,  93,  94,  99,  120. 

Miiller,  J.,  18. 

Miiller,  K.,  113. 

Muskalla,  K.,  2,  42,  47,  49. 

Mylius,  C.,  33,  35,  120. 

Napoleon,  vii,  25. 

Nassovia,  8,  31,  120. 

Neue  Bibliothek  der  schonen  Wissen- 

schaften,  56,  120. 
Nicolai,  C.  F.,  59,  66,  120. 
Niederer,  8. 

Olver,  21. 

Parsons,  E.  C.,  18. 
Patsch,  113. 
Paul,  15,  1 6. 
Percy,  54. 
Pertz,  20. 
Pescheck,  26,  30. 

Pestalozzi,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  42,  43,  46, 
56,  57,  59,  67,  81,  95,  105,  107, 

108,   113,   120,    122. 

Petersen,  V.,  28,  119. 

Pfeffel,  G.  K.,  120. 

Pfeiffer,  G.  J.,  2. 

Pfeil,  5,  6,  49,  59,  63,  67,  80,  114, 

1 20. 

Pitaval,  8,  121. 
Post,  A.  H.,  18. 
Preuss,  J.,  35,  116,  120. 


Prohle,  H.,  97. 

Rabener,  44. 
Ramler,  K.  W.,  117. 
Richter,  J.  P.,  44. 
Rieger,  M.,  73. 
Rigal,  5- 
Romulus,  19. 
Rope,  R.,  i. 
Rousseau,  J.  J.,  52. 
Roth,  F.,  55. 
Rothenberger,  C.,  3,  4. 
Riihle,  62. 
Runde,  80,  121. 

Salzmann,  F.  R.,  47. 
Sandmann,  E.,  120. 
Sauer,  A.,  2,  72,  74,  75,  120. 
Scheible,  J.,  75. 
Scherr,  J.,  26,  47. 

Schiller,  2,  4,  6,  20,  70,  75,  77,  83, 
84,  85,  88,  93,  96,  99,  103,  104, 

109,   IIO,   121,  122. 

Schink,  121. 

Schlegel,  G.,  60,  114. 

Schlosser,  J.  G.,  6,  41,  43,  45,  47,  58, 

59,  60,  68,  121. 
Schlozer,  A.  L.,  4,  6,  7,  9,  10,  67, 

121. 
Schmidt,  Erich,  I,  5,  V,  66,  73,  75, 

88,  121,  123. 
Schmidt,  K.,  121. 
Schmit,  F.,  72. 
Schnorr,  no. 

Schubart,  45,  83,  87,  99,  no,  121. 
Schultz,  A.,  20. 
Schummel,  80,  121. 
Schwabisches  Magazinfur  1781,  122. 
Schwager,  J.  M.,  114. 
Schwan,  5. 

Schweizer-Blatt,  5,  105,  122. 
Seneca,  19. 
Seuffert,  B.,  120. 
Seyffarth,  L.  W.,  4,  120. 
Socrates,  66. 
Soden,  114. 


127 


Sonnenfels,  J.  v.,  122. 

Sophie,   Grossherzogin  v.   Sachsen, 

117. 

Spangenberg,  E.,  122. 
Spielmann,  C.,  8,  31,  120. 
Sporl,  C.  C.,  114. 
Sprickmann,  3,  62,  65,  69,  70,  73, 

76,  77,  82,  84,  92,  99,  100,  1 10, 

122. 

Starcke,  C.  N.,  18. 

Stats-Anzeigen,  10,  n,  47,  56,  106, 

121. 

Staudlin,  G.  F.,  122. 

Steinhausen,  G.,  19. 

Stelzer,  65,  122. 

Sterne,  44. 

Stolberg,  F.  zu,  53. 

Strodtmann,  A.,  3,  10. 

Strube,  D.  G.,  122. 

Sturz,  H.  P.,  2,  59,  91,  92,  122. 

Stuve,  50,  122. 

Sumner,    W.    G.,    18,    19,    20,    22, 

122. 

Suphan,  B.,  8,  63,  108,  117. 
Sussmilch,  J.  P.,  45,  67,  123. 

Tacitus,  19,  23,  45. 
Tascheribuch  fur  Dichter  und  Dichter- 
freunde,  65,  72,  94,  117,  119,  120, 

122. 

Tertullian,  16. 

Thietz,  R.,  54. 

Thomas,  Calvin,  34. 

Thomasius,  C.,  34. 

Thummel,  30,  43,  59,  61,  65,  72,  84, 

86,  96,  100,  123. 
Tieck,  42,  119. 
Todd,  A.  J.,  12,  18,  20. 
Tscharner,  N.  E.,  42. 


Tyler,  20. 
Uz,  52,  123. 

Veltusen,  J.  C.,  114. 
Vierteljahrschrift    fur    Litteraturge- 

schichte,  64,  117. 
Volkersamen,  J.,  123. 
Vollhusen,  J.  P.,  10. 
Voltaire,  8,  34,  38. 
Voss,  121. 

Wagner,  H.  L.,  i,  2,  3,  5,  7,  8,  10, 
44,  47,  66,  70,  71,  73,  75,  76,  88, 
89,  95,  103,  107,  109,  1 10,  116, 
121,  123. 

Wainlud,  S.,  3,  123. 

Wehrli,  J.,  26,  27,  34,  123. 

Weinhold,  19,  20,  21,  23,  27,  31. 

Wekhrlin,  59,  115. 

Weltrich,  R.,  2,  122. 

Westermarck,  E.,  12,  16,  17,  18,  23. 

Wilke,  123. 

Willensbucher,  34,  123. 

Wilutzky,  P.,  18,  123. 

Wolff,  34. 

Wucherer,  W.  F.,  123. 

Young,  46. 

Zander,  F.,  123. 

Zeitschrift   fur    deutsche    Kulturge- 

schichte,  27. 
Zeitschrift  fur  deutsches  Recht,   31, 

112. 

Zelter,  2. 

Zimmermann,  105. 
Zoepfl,  H.,  30,  123. 
Zorn,  123. 


VITA 

Oscar  Helmuth  Werner  was  born  in  West  Point,  Nebraska, 
January  I,  1888.  After  completing  the  preparatory  work  at 
Enterprise  Normal  Academy,  Enterprise,  Kansas,  and  teach- 
ing one  year  in  the  public  schools  of  Johnson  County,  Nebras- 
ka, he  entered  Central  Wesleyan  College  in  September,  1907. 
From  this  institution  he  was  graduated  in  June,  1910,  with 
the  degree  A.B.  In  June,  1908,  Kansas  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity conferred  on  him  the  degree  M.  Accts.  During  the 
year  1910-11  he  was  Principal  of  the  School  of  Business  of 
his  alma  mater.  The  following  year  was  spent  at  North- 
western University  as  Fellow  in  German.  He  was  graduated 
from  this  institution  in  June,  1912,  with  the  degree  A.M. 
During  the  two  following  years  he  was  Professor  of  German 
and  French  in  Upper  Iowa  University.  From  September, 
1914,  to  July,  1916,  he  was  registered  as  a  graduate  student 
under  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  in  Columbia  University, 
devoting  part  of  his  time  to  the  teaching  of  German  in  the 
department  of  Extension  Teaching  of  the  same  University. 
Since  September,  1916,  he  has  been  instructor  in  German  in 
Case  School  of  Applied  Science. 


128 


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